Runa of The Horizon
by Mopec
Summary: Countless time reverse conducted by Homura had create a large effect not just towards the city, but it also creates distortion in time and space. Now Madoka and the others will engage in a new unfold world. While what Homura about to witness is something unexpected that even she could not believe.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello There. How do you do?**

**I had been reading some fan fiction of Puella Magi, Touhou and Nanoha and since I'm a little bored, I might as well write a story. This story may or may not inspired from another story and/or fan fiction. I hope you enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I did not own all the characters that I will be using in this story.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Unknown**

It was night time at Mitakihara. The streets are full of vehicles and pedestrians. Lights with all sorts of colour and size illuminate the city, making the city much more beautiful. To all the people who lived there, they thought they were living a normal life. Only a small number of them knew the horror that lies and silently disturbing the city. That night, two figure stood still at the top of a building.

"I guess this is the city. Well, I can't say I'm not impressed. Though I prefer to live in a quieter environment," One of the person said with a smile.

"Yes, milady. This is the city where a cruel fate and disaster will occur according to her. Not to mention it will affect us all." Replied the second person, standing behind the first one that she refered to as milady.

"When will the others come?" The first person asked again.

"Probably tomorrow's night or the next night after tomorrow," the second person answered. The first person nodded and smiled upon hearing the statement. Then both of them went silent, watching all the people walking around nearby the building.

"Hmm... I'm starting to get hungry by simply watching all these humans." The first person said while flapping her wings. "Shall we go?"

"Yes." Answered the second person as she understood what her master meant and wanted to do. Then both of the figure disappeared from the top of the building into the dark sky. Soon, strange things happened one after another.

...

Kaname Madoka stood at the front of a mirror, looking at herself. She yawned as she continued to comb her hair. The sun was rising as she put on her school uniform, getting ready to go to school. After she looked at herself on the mirror over and over again, she finally sighed. Madoka's behavior caught her mother's attention.

"What's wrong?" Her mother asked.

"Nothing, mom. It's just that I feel that I've been doing this repeatedly." Madoka replied with a smile. Her mind was wondering about strange dream that she had last night. She had the same dream for almost two days in a row. It was about a battle scene where she witnessed a girl fighting a huge monster with gears at the top. Then she talked to a strange creature. After that, white light flashes and blinded her eyes. She could not remember what happened after that.

"Well, you do go to school every day. So it makes sense that wearing your school uniform are your morning routine." Madoka's mother said as she patted Madoka's head.

"I guess you're right." said Madoka with a small laugh. After she had her breakfast, Madoka left the house. She met her two closest friends along the way to school. One of them had a short blue hair. While the other one had long and wavy green hair.

"Good morning, Madoka." The blue haired girl greeted Madoka, waving at her.

"Good morning, Sayaka." Replied Madoka as she looked at the girl. "And good morning to you too, Hitomi."

"Good morning." The green haired girl named Hitomi greeted back with a small giggle. The three of them talked about lots of thing as they continued to walk to their school. After a while, they went silent.

"Speaking of which," Hitomi then began another conversation. "Did you two watch the news this morning?"

"No I didn't," both Sayaka and Madoka answered at the same time.

"Just as I thought," Hitomi said with a sigh.

"You know I don't even bother to watch news, Hitomi," Sayaka replied proudly. Hitomi let out another sigh as she heard Sayaka said that. She knew that Sayaka was a type of person who was lazy enough to keep up to date with the news, except if it involves everything related to music.

"So... Anything interesting in this morning news?" Madoka asked.

"Well in the past two days, there had been a theft going on lately..." Hitomi answered as she started to begin.

"That's normal," Sayaka interrupted Hitomi without letting her to finish her sentence. It was obvious that Sayaka was not interested with the news. Hitomi let another sigh. That was the third time she sighed that morning.

"If it's a normal theft I wouldn't even bother telling you about it," Hitomi continued. "The most interesting yet mysterious part was every victim had a strange mark at their neck."

"Strange mark?" Madoka asked. What Hitomi had just said also attracts Sayaka's attention.

"Yes, two holes at their neck like a snake bite," Hitomi replied.

"Maybe a snake bites them. Then someone found them and took their money," Sayaka said without thinking.

"It's not a coincidence that every victim being bitten by a snake," Hitomi said. "Like I mentioned earlier, the police only found that strange mark at every victim's neck."

"So... Are the victims alright?" Sayaka asked back.

"Yes," Hitomi replied. "Although according to the police they're still unconscious at the hospital due to loss of blood."

"Wait! All of them lost their blood?" Madoka seemed surprised as she heard that.

"Yeah, although it's nothing serious as they lost just a small amount of blood," Hitomi answered.

"I see," Madoka replied with a relief. "I hope they're okay."

"Hmm..." Sayaka made a hum after she went silent for a length of time. It seemed to Madoka and Hitomi that their friend was in deep thought.

"What's wrong?" Hitomi asked while tilting her head.

"It's strange when you think about it. Snake like bite at victim's neck and loss of blood. Maybe it's a vampire," Sayaka replied as she made a scary looking face. Madoka let a small laugh while looking at her face. Then she looked at Madoka as if she was giving a hint. Madoka then realized what Sayaka meant by 'vampire'.

"But vampires don't need money," Hitomi replied. "So why would they steal if they're the one who attacked the victims?"

"That's... A good point..." Sayaka said with a disappointed tone. But she did not gave up in making another theory. Madoka just smiled as her two friend continued to exchange views. But at the same time, she also wondered about the incident and thought, _I feel sorry for the victims_.

Soon they arrived at their school. As they are on their way to their classroom, they could hear almost all of the students were talking about the same news that the three of them were just talking about before. Even their classmates talked about the news.

"Wow! I didn't expect that the incident to be a hot topic right now," Sayaka said with an amusing tone. "Not to mention that some of them make a same theory as I did."

"It is strange when you think about it. Strange bite at victim's neck, loss of blood and the thief took away the victim's money," Madoka said as she sat on her chair. Their conversation stopped as they saw a girl with black hair came into the classroom. The girl looked at Sayaka and Madoka with a cold eyes before she sat, completely ignoring them after that. Madoka looked at the girl for quite a while as she was the one who appeared in her dream, fighting a huge monster. It's been two days the girl had been in their class as a newly transferred student.

"That Akemi Homura..." Sayaka said with an annoying tone as she refered the girl as Akemi Homura. "Really irritates me."

"Don't say like that," Madoka replied. At the same time she also could not shook the fact that Homura are showing a little bit of hostility towards both of them. But she could also feel that Homura was showing lonliness as she gazed her purple eyes.

"And don't forget that she's the one who was trying to attack Kyuubey, Mami and us," Sayaka reminded Madoka of what had happen two days ago when they were at the shopping mall. Madoka recalled her memories of meeting Kyuubey and Tomoe Mami for the first time as well a creature known as a witch. That was also the first time she saw Homura being in a magical girl form.

Sayaka looked up at the ceiling as she was still wondering about the incident when their homeroom teacher, Saotome Kazuko arrived at the classroom. When all of the students went back to their own seat, she started ranting about whether her students like their fried eggs fully cooked or half cooked.

"She probably got rejected... again," Sayaka grinned at Madoka.

"She must've gotten rejected again," Madoka repeated back what Sayaka just said to her. Both of them smiled and giggled at their teacher's behavior as they remembered that their teacher also said the same thing two days ago. As soon as school was over, both Madoka and Sayaka decided to meet Mami at her apartment.

"Ah, both of you already arrived," said Mami with a smile when she opened the door and saw them. She was a fine looking girl with blonde hair tied into a drill-like twintail. Not to mention that she had a good figure that sometimes Madoka and Sayaka felt envy of her. She was their senior at their school, so it makes them feel safe especially around Homura.

As the three of them sat on the floor at the living room, Mami started their conversation, "So are you two ready to become a magical girl?"

"Not really since we still haven't figure what our wish are, right Madoka?" Sayaka replied, following with Madoka nodding while looking at Mami. "But more importantly, have you heard of the news this morning?"

"Yes," Mami answered.

"It seems the witch is going wild again, huh," Sayaka said in a serious tone.

"I think the thing that attacked the victim was not a witch although it seems to involve the witch," Mami pointed out. Sayaka seemed to make a confused face.

"Remember what I told you two about witches," She started to explain further. "All victim that fall into witch control will ended up die. But according to the news the victims didn't die. They just being unconscious due to loss of blood."

"I see," Sayaka thought that Mami also had a point.

"Although... I do felt a strong magical energy radiated for the past two days," Mami continued to explain again.

"So can you find the thing that attacked the victims?" Madoka asked. Mami just shooked her head.

"Unfortunately no," Mami replied. "I tried to chase it, but the energy always disappeared within a short time."

"Strange," Madoka said.

"But what's stranger was that they didn't take away grief seeds. They just simply left it near the victim," Mami said.

"You mean that the victim was under witch's control, but someone defeated the witch and then left the grief seed there?" Sayaka seemed surprised.

"Yes," Mami answered. They went silent for a while as they continued to eat a cake that Mami baked for the three of them.

"Well then, let's go on a witch hunt," Mami stood up after she cleared the dishes on the table. The other two girls nodded, as the activity was what they were looking foward to do. Soon they left Mami's apartment and went into the city.

"By the way, where is Kyuubey?" Madoka suddenly asked.

"Now you've mentioned it, I haven't seen him either," Sayaka noticed that Kyuubey was not with them.

"Maybe he wandered off on his own to find and recruit someone with magical powers," Mami said with a smile. They continued to pass the lively city and went towards an area with abandoned buildings. According to Mami, witch's activity mostly appeared at places where their victim can conduct a suicide. No one knew about the witch as they could not see the barrier that surrounded the witch.

"I can feel that this is the place where the witch are," Mami said as they arrived at a large abandoned building. She raised her hand to open up the barrier set up by the witch. They went inside with full cautious. Both Madoka and Sayaka felt that there was nothing to worry as their senior are protecting them. They witnessed again their senior fighting gracefully against witch's familiars, conjuring dozens of muskets and fired it towards the familiar. Sayaka was more excited than Madoka when it comes to fighting witches as she lived up a 'hero of justice' ideal inside her heart.

As Mami continued to fight swarms of familiars, she stopped all of the sudden. Even the witch's familiars that attacked the three girls stopped and looked at certain direction, as if they were bothered by something. Then all the familiars went towards the direction.

"Okay, that was weird," Sayaka said with a confused tone. "Usually the familiars attacked us without halting."

"I can feel it," Mami spoke after she closed her eyes, trying to feel something.

"What is it?" Sayaka asked.

"I can feel the strong magical energy, and it's overlapped with the witch's energy," Mami replied with an unease tone. "I think we better hurry."

"Is it Homura?" Madoka asked.

"I don't think its Homura," Mami replied. They went further inside the witch's territory, hoping to find anything that emit's strong magical energy. They did not see familiars lingering around to attack them as they continued running. As they were on the way towards the witch, all of the sudden the witch's barrier started to crumble.

"Hey, what's happening? Did someone already take down the witch?" Sayaka asked.

"I'm afraid so," Mami answered. "Although I could still feel strong magical energy. We have to be prepared."

As soon as the barrier vanished, they saw the witch's victim lying in front of them. Then they saw two figures standing while looking at the victim. Madoka gasped as she saw something unusual at one of the two figures. The two figures noticed the three of them and turned.

"Looks like we're lucky that I got three more meal for me," one of the figure said.

"M-meal?" Madoka stuttered as she carefully looked again and again at the figure. It was a small petite girl with short light blue hair, red eyes and wearing a light pink mob and dress. She showed a small fang as her mouth curved a small smile. The thing that made Madoka gasped earlier was she had a wing similar to a bat's wing.

"Yes, milady," said another figure. Now Sayaka seemed confused as she examined the second figure. She was a tall lady with beautiful figure, wearing an outfit similar to those the waitress wore at a maid-themed cafe. She had a short silver hair and braided sideburn.

"Whoa! Are you two into cosplay or something?" Asked Sayaka while raising one of her eyebrow. Then she looked at the petite girl in purple. "And this is not a safe place for you to play around kid."

"Hmm, this is interesting. It seems my appearance let your eyes fool you," said the petite girl.

"What do you mean by that, young girl?" Mami asked. The petite girl did not bother to answer the question as she suddenly released an aura that even Madoka, Mami and Sayaka could feel the shivering at their spine. Before the three of them could do anything, the lady in maid outfit suddenly appeared behind them.

"I hope you won't try to force you way out," the lady said with a smile. But they could feel that behind the smile lies a threatening tone. The petite girl slowly raised the witch's victim. Madoka, Sayaka and Mami surprised as the girl slowly bite the victim's neck. After a minute the girl let go of the victim and looked at the three of them with a smile, feeling satisfied. They could see blood dripping from her mouth, leaving stains on her clothes. They could not believe what they had just seen. The petite girl just drank blood from a person.

"My, my. Don't look at me with that awful look on your face," the girl spoke again. "I guess I'll let you three go as I've already had my meal, but on one condition."

"I had a bad feeling about this," Mami spoke in a whisper tone after she went silent. But no one notice what she had just said.

"So you're the one who attacked someone. You monster!" Sayaka gathered the courage to shout at the girl. All of the sudden, she could feel a cold steel wraping beside her neck. At the end of her eye, she could see the lady in maid placed a knife at her.

"Sayaka!" Madoka shouted.

"Release her at once!" Mami aimed a musket at the lady. But she didn't seemed to surprised with Mami's action.

"I appreciate you don't insult milady like that," the lady spoke in a cold tone.

"Do not harm her," The petite girl suddenly ordered the tall lady. The lady slowly put down her knife and bowed towards the girl. Then the girl slowly floats towards them. The three girls especially Mami was surprised. Madoka, Sayaka and even Mami had not seen a magical girl that could float before.

"I apologize for my maid's action." the girl spoke again after carefully examined the three girls. Then she fixed her eyes at Sayaka. "Then again, you sure have the courage to shout at me. Usually humans will be terrified as soon as they saw me. You have my praise, girl."

"Does that mean... you're not a human?" This time it was Madoka who had the courage to ask the girl. In her mind, if the girl was a human then she would not talk as if she was not one.

"Does a human drink blood?" The girl answered Madoka's question with a question. The three of them could not answer the question although they know the answer.

"So does that mean you're a vampire?" now it was Mami who gathered up the courage to ask the girl.

"Yes, you are correct," the girl said with a big grin and put both of her hands on her hips as if she was proud when someone mentioned the word 'vampire'. The three of them could not believe that the girl had just claimed to be a vampire. In their mind, vampires only exist in myth and fairy tale.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Remilia Scarlet, and my maid behind you three is Izayoi Sakuya." The three of them looked at the lady in maid outfit which Remilia refered to as Sakuya, who smiled and bowed slightly towards them. "And it wouldn't hurt you three if you all state your name as well, am I right?"

"I am Tomoe Mami, and this is Kaname Madoka and Miki Sayaka," Mami started their introduction. Remilia Scarlet looked at Sayaka with a big grin as she slowly floats towards her. Sayaka on the other hand tried to avoid Remilia as she could not stand the smell of blood on her, but she was afraid that her action will invoke the petite vampire's anger.

"I started to like you, Miki Sayaka," Remilia spoke again, which made Sayaka blush upon hearing her. "You had the courage to oppose someone you don't know, although you're not confident whether you could win or not. But let me tell you, your courage may or may not bring you into darkness."

"What do you mean?" Sayaka asked.

"That will be the riddle you'll have to find the answer for yourself," Remilia replied with a smile.

"You said that you'll let us go with one condition right?" Madoka asked, hoping that the condition was not that they will not become Remilia's meal.

"We hope that we will not become your meal too," Sayaka stated what Madoka had just thought. It seemed that she also thought the same thing as her. Mami gave Sayaka a look that she should not said such thing.

"Well let's see. Before I state the condition, we might as well go to one of your house first." Remilia said. The three girls felt uneasy upon hearing Remilia saying that. It was as if she had something in her mind which they would not like it. But they could not disagree towards the petite vampire's demand. It was Mami who led all of them to her apartment, as she was the only one who lived alone. But as soon as they started walking, Sakuya went by Remilia's side and whispered something. After a few second, Remilia smiled and nodded at Sakuya.

"Well then. Something just came up and I suppose I'll let you go," Remilia then spoke towards the three girls. Madoka and the others smiled as they heard Remilia said that. "... but it will be for today that is. Until then, have a nice day."

As soon as Remilia said that, Sakuya and her walked away. The three girls let out a big sigh as they felt relieved that Remilia did not do anything harm towards them. From afar, Homura was standing at the top of a building after she finished chasing and eliminating Kyuubey around the area. Her eyes widened as she saw the newcomer who she did not know, even in the previous timeline. _What's going on? This isn't what I've experienced before. Who were those two girls?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello there. I think its been a week since I first published the first chapter of this crossover fanfic. So now here it is... the second chapter of the crossover series... enjoy.. (0w0)b**

* * *

Chapter 2: Time vs Time

Madoka could not sleep well that night. She was wide awake as she kept having dream of Remilia and several girls that she have not seen nor met before. Madoka looked at her table clock; it was 10:30 PM. She recalled back her memories of what had happened that evening.

...

"Man, what's really going on here?" Sayaka moaned as soon as she sat on the floor. Madoka, Sayaka and Mami gathered at Mami's apartment after they met Remilia and Sakuya for the first time. "Are we going to fight a vampire now?"

"But are they both really an enemy? They seemed nice," Madoka stated.

"They must be our enemy," Sayaka argued. "Never let our eyes fool us. She said that herself."

"But they didn't hurt us," Madoka still are not sure whether Remilia and Sakuya will be a threat towards magical girls and humans in general.

"They let us go just because they seemed they had other thing to do. Not to mention that Remilia girl sucked and drank blood from the witch's victim in front of us. Geez, just looking at her smiling with blood dripping from her mouth gives me the creep. I think Mami also share the same thought as me. Right, Mami?"

Madoka and Sayaka looked at Mami who kept silent ever since they walked out from the abandoned buildings area up until now. It seemed that she was in deep thought about what they had just witnessed. Then Mami snapped out of her thought as Sayaka waved her hand in front of her and spoke, "Y-yes?"

"Are you okay?" Madoka asked. She was worried if their senior was hurt since her face was pale.

"I'm alright. It's just that..." Mami trailed off for a minute before she continued. "... I couldn't do anything to protect you two."

"It's okay since they let us go unharmed," Madoka smiled, trying to ease her senior's mind.

"But that maid managed to go behind us and threatened me with a knife. How did she appeared behind us all of the sudden!?" Sayaka said in an angry tone.

"Sayaka's right. We would've been hurt by that vampire's maid," Mami agreed with what Sayaka just said. "It seems she had the same ability just like Homura."

"You mean Homura could appear and disappear like that maid Sakuya did?" Sayaka seemed surprised as neither she nor Madoka know what Homura ability was.

"Yes. Though her weapons are mainly armament," Mami answered.

"I think we should ask Kyuubey whether he knows about this. Maybe both of them are new type of witch," Sayaka suggested. But Mami shook her head instead of agreeing with Sayaka's suggestion.

"That wouldn't be possible," Mami said as she shuffled her hand into her school uniform pocket. Then she took out a small piece of paper. "It seems they left us this note."

Madoka and Sayaka's eyes widened as the three of them read the content on the paper.

_We hope you'll cooperate with us by telling no one. If you do managed to break this taboo, rest assure that you may not see tomorrow's daylight._

The three of them looked at each other, speechless. They did not know what to do after they read the note; should they ask and tell Kyuubey or not? If they do, then they may face unexpected consequences, especially after they witness what Remilia and Sakuya was capable of. It was Madoka who started their conversation after a long silence, "I think we should follow the instruction that Remilia and Sakuya left at us."

"But they will hurt someone if we kept silent like this," Sayaka was dissatisfy with Madoka's suggestion.

"I think Madoka had a point. It's best for us to keep silent about this. Who knows what they'll do to us if we tell anyone including Kyuubey about this," now Mami agreed with Madoka's point of view. Sayaka made a dissatisfy look before she finally nodded in agreement. After all, Mami was the one who had more experience when dealing with all those sort of thing than her. So it makes sense that she had to follow her advice.

"We haven't seen Kyuubey anywhere today. Where the heck is he when we need him most!?" Sayaka frowned again as she did not saw Kyubeey lingering around them. Usually he was the one who followed them no matter where they went, especially Madoka. But that evening he was nowhere to be found.

"Well just like I said before, maybe he's wandering around on his own trying to recruit new magical girls," Mami forced herself to smile as she replied Sayaka's frown although her mind still thinking about Remilia and Sakuya. While inside Madoka's mind, she felt that she could trust both of them although Remilia tends to drink human's blood in front of them earlier.

"Oh yeah, I've a random question," Mami and Sayaka looked at Madoka who was trying to ask something. "I wonder why miss Remilia was able to come out during daytime."

"We're sorry, Madoka. We didn't know about it either since we're not miss Remilia. Maybe you should ask her yourself if you've got the chance to meet her again," Mami replied. Sayaka in the other hand tried her best not to face palm upon hearing Madoka's question. Madoka let out a small laugh as she was embarrassed by her own silly question.

...

"I really wonder if they're also an enemy," Madoka muttered as she blinked her eyes several times, looking at the ceiling. She knew that she was not supposed to think about the matter since she had school to attend tomorrow. But she could not shrug her mind from thinking about Remilia and Sakuya. Soon she fell asleep and drift into the realm of dreams once again.

Meanwhile...

Homura was running across the alleys in Mitakihara city, patrolling to find some witch. Every few minute she could sense there are witch's barriers activated. But the moment she arrived the witch had already been taken down, leaving the grief seed behind. Homura started to get annoyed as she did not know who had defeated the witches. But at the same time she was confused because the one who defeated the witches did not took the grief seed with them.

"What is really happening here?" Homura muttered. "I don't experience this in the previous timeline. Who defeated all those witches!?"

Then a moment later she could sense another witch appeared not far away from her. At the same time, she had an idea. Gears inside her buckler shield on her left hand clicked as the world around her turned monochrome; she stopped the time around her. She made a swift run towards the witch that had appear. She stopped her ability as soon as she arrived and tried to pass through the witch's barrier. But the barrier crumbled and vanishes as soon as she was inside. Homura quickly find a place to hide, hoping that she could discover and identify the culprit. There she saw two figures stood beside the grief seed that was lying on the floor. She could not believe that the figures are the one that she saw talking to Madoka and the others that evening. She thought that if those two could defeat a witch, then they must be magical girls.

"Humph! There's no human again inside this barrier," Remilia said with a disappointed tone, picking up the grief seed before threw it back on the floor. "And the only thing that monster left us is that orb item."

"Not to worry, milady. I'm sure we'll find another monster with humans inside their barrier," Sakuya tried to cheer Remilia up. Homura barely heard what the two of them were saying. But in her mind the way both of them talked were as if they were not human. Furthermore, she could not believe that Remilia threw away the grief seed since she assumed that Remilia and Sakuya were magical girls just like her.

"Milady, should we worry about the three girls that we've met earlier?" Sakuya asked.

"Hmm... Miki Sayaka, Tomoe Mami and Kaname Madoka right?" Remilia asked. Sakuya nodded and Remilia shooked her head in response. On the other hand, Homura's eyes widened as she heard the name Madoka being mentioned by Remilia. She could feel that she did not like whatever comes out from Remilia's mouth after this.

"I don't think they'll be a threat to us. Besides, we've left a note on one of them right? So if they told anyone else then I suppose we'll..." Remilia stopped as she heard clicking sound behind her. She looked behind just to see Homura pointing a gun at her head.

"My, my. Don't you think it's rude to appear out of nowhere and pointing something at me just like that?" Remilia asked with a grin. Homura flinched when she heard a little girl said something like an old women would. But she did not care about that matter because Madoka's safety is more important to her.

"Look! I don't know who you are, kid. But if you try to hurt Madoka, then I'll have to eliminate you now and here," Homura threatened Remilia. Her cold eyes met Remilia's gaze. However Remilia was unfazed but instead she laughed. Homura was surprise that Remilia did not even quiver with the gun pointed at her.

"What's so funny?" Homura growled.

"You're the second person to call me a kid. So if I'm going to do anything to those girls, are you going to harm me with that thing on your hand?" As usual Remilia answered a question with a question. Homura could not hold her anger any longer. The moment the pulled the trigger, Remilia and Sakuya disappeared in front of her.

"Where did they go?" Homura muttered.

"We're right here," Remilia responded.

"How did...?" Homura was surprised when she saw the two of them appeared behind her.

"I assume you wanted to ask how we appeared behind you. Well who knows," Remilia interrupted Homura. Her grin made Homura's anger rose. She had no choice but to freeze time and threw several small bomb towards them. She thought that should at least do some damage to Remilia and Sakuya. Homura watched the bomb explode as she unfroze the time. The explosion had created a smokescreen, making it difficult for Homura to view her opponent.

"I'm impressed that you could throw that many explosive items in a split second," Homura could hear Remilia's voice coming from inside the smoke. As the smoke dissipated, her eyes widened as she saw a barrier was created by Sakuya to deflect the bombs and explosion created.

"Sakuya," Remilia contiued. Sakuya nodded at her master since she knew what her master wants her to do. Before Homura could do anything, Sakuya had disappeared from her sight. Then all of the sudden she could feel someone pointed a sharp object behind her. She turned her head around and saw Sakuya was holding a knife.

"I suggest you should give up. Who knows what will happen if you don't," Sakuya said with a smile. The moment she finished talking, she could hear something clicking from Homura's buckler before Homura disappeared. The only thing that appeared around her was dozen of grenades, waiting to explode. While she could see Homura was just not too far away from her. Sakuya disappeared out of Homura's sight just before the grenades exploded. Homura quickly scanned around just to see knives being thrown at her in straight line.

"What the-!?" Homura gasped as she barely stopped time and tried to avoid the knives due to its agility. The second she saw Sakuya in front of her during that moment, she quickly pulled out a submachine gun and shoot dozens of bullet. The moment she unfreeze the time, she saw Sakuya managed to put up a barrier to deflect the bullets before she disappeared again. Homura did not manage to observe her surrounding as Sakuya managed to point a knife behind her again. Once again Homura activated her ability and turned around, pulling a handgun. Her eyes widened as Sakuya was nowhere to be seen.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Homura startled as she hardly believe she could hear a voice behind her during the time froze. She slowly turned around just to see Sakuya smiled at her. She was speechless, trying to comprehend the situation.

"This world seemed peaceful and quiet, yet it felt like this is a dead world for me and you," Sakuya continued, ignoring confused Homura.

"How is this possible!?" Homura still could not believe Sakuya could move and talk.

"Simply put, I'm also being able to stop, slow and speed up time. So I had this wonderful theory when I saw lots of explosive item that you've used appeared all of the sudden, and I was right," Sakuya smiled as she slowly walked towards Homura. On the other hand Homura took steps backward to put on a distance between Sakuya and her.

"Remember when I threw knives towards you?" Sakuya asked. Homura hastily nodded while she cautiously on her guard for another possible assault. "It seems you didn't realize it yet. But the edge of your skirt was ripped off a little bit by it. If your ability is teleporting, then my knives wouldn't hit you nor tear your clothes."

Homura looked at her skirt and saw what Sakuya had just told her. She let out a small growl as she looked back at Sakuya. In her mind, she was too careless to leave unexpected evidence that had led her opponent to know her ability.

"How did you manage to avoid from being affected by my magic?" In Homura's mind, although Sakuya had the same magic ability as her, she could not avoid from affected by her magic.

"I took a cue," Sakuya replied.

"A cue?"

"Yes. You always 'disappeared' the moment the device on your left hand made a clicking sound. So I had a thought that if I activate my ability at the same time as when I heard the clicking sound, I won't be affected by you," Sakuya explained furthermore.

"But why didn't you use your magic ability avoid the bullets that I shoot at you?" Homura raised up her voice.

"I need to put myself into a trap in order to deceive an enemy. As you seemed to unsure of what my ability was, so I've put a little play," Sakuya pointed out. Homura had no idea that Sakuya were that wise in observing her opponent. She was speechless. She gritted her teeth as she now knew she was facing a very intelligent foe. "So, what will you do? If you had the same ability as me, I think something that we throw will end up being affected by our ability. Though I'm still be able to use my knife in engaging close melee combat with you."

Although Homura did not like what Sakuya had just said but she had no other choice but to surrender, since she was inexperience in close ranged combat. Moreover her soul gem started to darken, indicating that she needs to cleanse it. "I give up. You win."

"Wise choice, little girl. Now then, undo your ability before I undo mine. Not to worry as I promised milady and I won't hurt you if you cooperate. Unless you pull another trick after this," Sakuya praised her with a smile, though Homura did not like being called 'little girl'. Homura sighed as she undoes her ability. After Sakuya saw Homura was enveloped with the monochromed world, she also undoes her ability. Now they were back at their normal, colourful world where the time flowed like normal.

"It seems you're a little bit lost there girl," Remilia gave Homura a big grin, assuming that Sakuya won in their duel. Homura on the other hand just gazed at Remilia without saying a single word. She showed a little bit of dislike towards Remilia's attitude. But she chose not to engage in another duel.

Sakuya walked beside Remilia and whispered something. Remilia then just smiled and nodded. While Homura revert from her magical outfit into her school uniform. She then took out a grief seed from her pocket and placed it near her soul gem, allowing it to absorb the contaminants that had tainted the soul gem. Remilia observed Homura with full of amusement.

"Hmm, so that's how that item was used," Remilia muttered.

"Aren't you two going to change back and cleanse you soul gem?" Homura asked as she handed over two grief seed towards Remilia and Sakuya.

"We apologize because we don't know what you're talking about. I can only assume that you want us to use that orb on something like that on your hand," Remilia replied as she pointed her finger towards Homura's soul gem.

"Why are you talking as if you don't have a soul gem?" Homura continued to ask.

"That's because we don't have anything of what you called a soul gem," Remilia replied. Homura's eyes widened as she could not believe what Remilia had just said.

"That's impossible," Homura argued. "Then how come that girl in maid outfit use magical power if neither she nor you have soul gem?"

"We simply don't need the soul gem to use magic because we can use magic on our own," Remilia explained. Homura tried so hard to understand Remilia's explaination. She still could not believe that someone could use magic without the soul gem.

"I think you've mistaken both of us as your kind," Remilia pointed out. "If so then let me ask you, have you seen someone with the soul gem that can do this?"

Once again Homura's eyes widened the moment she witnessed Remilia turned into bats before she reappeared few inches away in front of her. She was taken aback and took a few steps back. Remilia let out a small laugh when she saw Homura's reaction.

"Oh my, you sure reacted like those three girls that I've met earlier. I wish you could see own face when you're surprised." Remilia teased as Homura tried to regain her cold expression. Although she was still be unable to believe what she just saw, but Homura had to accept the fact that Remilia was different from magical girls. If she was a witch, she would not kill another witch since Homura have not seen such things happened in her previous timeline.

"If you're not a magical girl, then what are you?" Homura asked another question.

"Oh, I believe we haven't introduce ourselves yet. I am Remilia Scarlet and this is my maid, Izayoi Sakuya. Simply put, I'm a vampire that humans grew fear of for decades." Remilia smiled as she was proud of herself being a vampire.

"V-vampire!?" Homura stuttered. "But that's..."

"Impossible? Unreasonable? Just a myth? If you had a thought like that, then I'll have to say that your knowledge about the world is still small and narrow. Thus you need to learn more," Remilia interrupted before Homura could finish her sentence. Homura was taken aback by Remilia's remark, however she made a choice not to agrue furthermore with someone who seemed older than her although she looked like a little girl.

"If you want me to proof you whether I'm a real vampire or not, then let me have a feast on your blood," Remilia continued while releasing an evil aura. Homura started to feel chill running down her body, causing her to feel the fear towards new threat. Her face stiffened as she waited for possible assault. As soon as Remilia saw Homura's reaction, she let out another small laugh.

"Oh dear, don't be too serious. I'm just teasing you. Sakuya told me earlier that we wouldn't hurt you if you cooperate with us. So I guess I won't bite and drink your blood," Remilia grinned. While Homura once again tried to regain her normal expression back. She felt embarrassed that she let Remilia teased her although she found that Remilia's excited face seemed cute, like those of a child who found an interesting toy.

"So does that mean your maid Sakuya is also a vampire?" Homura continued to ask.

"No, she's just a human just like you. But she possesses a unique ability which you yourself had witnessed," Then Remilia politely asked, "Now that you know about the two of us, may you introduce yourself?"

"Akemi Homura," Homura replied short. "Just call me Homura."

"Well then Homura, I know you have a lot of question to ask. But I believe this place is unsuitable for quiet and further discussion. Why don't you lead us the way to your house," Remilia said with a smile. Although Homura did not like the idea of bringing Remilia and Sakuya to her apartment, she agree with the suggestion. It was also to avoid them from being seen by Kyuubey, although he would not want to be near Homura since she showed hostility towards them. Also it seemed that their fight had attracted people nearby, which indicate they have to withdraw from the area before they were seen.

...

"Hmm, this place looks quite fancy. It may fit Pache quite well if its very spacious. Am I right, Sakuya?" Remilia started a conversation as soon as they stepped inside Homura's apartment. Both Remilia and Sakuya could only saw floating picture frame with odd information and pictures on them. Simple furniture and various sizes of gears at the ceiling decorated the rather empty room. It seemed to them the room was enhanced with magic to make it look like that though they did not bothered to ask.

"Yes, milady," Sakuya smiled as she replied.

"Pache?" The word suddenly came out from Homura's mouth.

"Ah, just my friend," Remilia answered. "I think she will be coming tonight,"

"I see. Have a seat, miss Remilia and miss Sakuya," Homura humbly said. Remilia nodded and sat opposite Homura. While Sakuya only stood behind Remilia.

"Well Homura, shall we begin with your questions?" Remilia asked. Homura only nodded in response, indicating that she was ready.

"First of all, where did you two come from?" Homura asked after she took a deep breath a few time.

"The two of us came from a place called Gensokyo. It was a place where all supernatural being co-exist. Though there are also normal human beings just like you," Remilia elaborated her answer. Homura on the other hand seemed surprised as that was the first time she heard that place.

"Where is this place called Gensokyo?"

"You won't be able to find it anywhere since it's protected by a boundary which you humans couldn't see with your naked eyes," Remilia replied.

"I see. So what is your purpose coming to this city?" then Homura asked another question.

"Simply put, there's a lot of incident happening lately at Gensokyo and after some investigation, we found out that the source of the incident are from outside Gensokyo. That's why we went outside to investigate this incident," Remilia answered.

"Incident?"

"The monster with some barrier incident," Remilia continued. Homura nodded and knew that what Remilia meant by monster was the witches.

"And after that?"

"We'll try to solve the incident," Remilia grinned as she answered. Homura seemed unhappy to hear her answer.

_Impossible_, Homura thought.

"Well then, are you done with your question?" Remilia asked.

"One more question," Homura replied.

"And that would be...?"

"Why are you attacking humans and drink their blood?" Homura asked. Remilia let out a small laugh as soon as she heard the question.

"I'm a vampire, that's why," Remilia smirk. "I do need to drink blood. However if you can provide me large amount of blood, perhaps I won't attack the humans."

"What about the money that both of you stole?"

"We also need food to survive. And to do that we need money," Remilia replied.

"I see," then an idea came to Homura's mind. "You said you'll stop attacking human and drink their blood if I provide you with large amount of blood right?"

"Yes."

"I think I know the place," said Homura.

"Oh you do? Then I'll let Sakuya come with you to get those for me," said Remilia. Sakuya nodded in response. Homura on the other hand wanted to object the suggestion, but she chose not to say anything. It did not take long for Sakuya and Homura to obtain what Remilia requested. Homura put a box on a table. As soon as Remilia the box, she saw it contained large quantity of blood packets.

"Oh my, it's my favourite type of blood," Remilia said excitedly as she recognized the smell of the blood. "You have my praise, Homura."

"I'm glad that Sakuya was there to help me in finding your favourite type of blood," Homura said. She felt relieved that Remilia was not disappointed. Sakuya walked towards Remilia and whispered something into her ear. Remilia just smiled and nodded in response.

"Well, I guess I have to go. It seems Pache had arrived," Remilia spoke as she stood up. Sakuya carried the box full of blood packet.

"I thank you for this blood packet. I suppose I'll need your help again in obtaining more of these," Remilia smiled before Sakuya and her walked towards the door. Homura just nodded, looking at both of them leaving her apartment.

"This can't be happening. Too much unexpected things happened," Homura muttered after she went silent for a few minute. Homura stood up and quickly left her apartment, hoping that she was not too late. "I hope thing won't get worse. Now I had to go and kill that person before she creates some problem in this timeline."

* * *

**Author's note (^^;):**

**Ah, I nearly forgot to put this. As you can see, the battle between Homura and Sakuya are only based on my assumption. ****Especially their conversation during time stop or freeze, I can only imagine what it would be like they invoke their ability at the same time.**

******I had a thought that I might try to spice things up on the upcoming chapter, depending whether the situation in the story is suitable or not. It'll be a surprise (^^;).**


	3. Chapter 3

**I didn't know how I managed to finish this chapter so quickly.**

**Before you continue reading this chapter, there is something that I would like to clarify again. I did not make Touhou characters OP just because I'm a hardcore fan of Touhou, nor I'm making Puella Magi characters weak just because I didn't like the anime. I'm trying to make the characters 'alive'. I don't want to make a story where a person who was new to magic suddenly becomes OP and superior without proper training, like Kirito from S.A.O. who was just a regular player get all the credit, fancy weapon and previledge and be able to beat the creator of the game when he only had 1 hp.**

**So to balance the story, I've decided to add newcomer to the story, while the story still focuses on Touhou characters that is (since that was my aim in the first place). Just so you know as the chapter continues, random characters will appear as sidekick or support character.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Encounter**

"Good morning, Madoka," the person greeted like that as she approached Madoka with a smile on her face, was Sayaka.

"Good morning, Sayaka," replied Madoka, returning the smile.

"How's your night? Did you had a good night sleep?" Sayaka asked.

"Well, I did had a dream of Remilia and several other girls that I've never met before. But its not a scary dream," Madoka tried to recall her dream.

"Lucky for you," Sayaka sighed before she continued. "I had a nightmare last night."

What did you dreamt of?" Madoka asked.

"I dreamt of Remilia trying to suck my blood and her face was stained with blood. Man, why am I the only one being haunted by her!?" Sayaka frowned. "I hope we wouldn't encounter her again."

Madoka just smiled at her without saying anything. She felt sorry for Sayaka because she kept haunted by Remilia's image. Soon they arrived at their school. The moment they went inside their classroom, they saw Homura sitting on her desk.

"Weird," Sayaka whispered at Madoka's ear. "She usually looked at us with her cold attitude. But today she didn't even bother to do that."

"Maybe she's tired," Madoka replied. They resumed their daily life as a student like nothing extraordinary had happened to them before. Time seemed to pass so fast when the school bell rang, indicating it was already lunch time.

...

Homura stared blankly at her desk. She had no appetite to go to the cafeteria and eat something. Her mind was bothered by what had happened last night. She had made her plans carefully so that she would succeed. But the result was the opposite of what she expected to see.

"Unexpected things occur one after another. There's no way she knew my plan," Homura muttered. "I will go there again tonight and I hope I will found her."

Homura nearly jumped as she suddenly felt a hand touched her forehead. She quickly looked up and saw it was Madoka. She gazed her pink eyes for a few second before looking away.

"A-are you okay, Homura? You look pale. Do you need to go to the infirmary?" Madoka asked.

"I'm alright. No need to worry about me," Homura replied in her usual cold voice. She stood up and left the classroom. Madoka tried to follow her, but she was stopped by Sayaka.

"Let her be, Madoka. As long as she doesn't bother us, we shouldn't worry too much about her," Sakaya said.

"I'm worried about her health. After all, she just got out from the hospital," Madoka replied.

"Oh I forgot. You're our class health representative. I'm sure you don't want the teacher to blame you if anything happens to Homura," said Sayaka. Madoka just nodded. But finally she decided to leave Homura alone since it seemed to her that she was alright. After the school ended, Madoka and Sayaka had planned to meet Mami at the front of the school gate before they go for witch hunting.

"Ah, there she is," Sayaka spoke as soon as she saw Mami. "Mami."

"You two already here," Mami smiled. "Are you ready to go for a witch hunt?"

"You bet I am," Sayaka replied enthutiantically. Madoka only smiled and nodded. Just before they started walking they saw a white creature that they were familiar with, walking towards them.

"There you are, Kyuubey! Where were you all this time?" Sayaka spoke in a disappointed tone.

"I was on the other city since yesterday. Is there something that you need from me?" replied Kyuubey. His face did not even change since he used telephathic ability to communicate. "Or perhaps you already have something to wish?"

"No. We've been looking for you because lately there's..." Before Sayaka could finish her sentence, Mami tugged her sleeve. Mami gave her a sign that she should not tell Kyuubey anything, especially regarding Remilia and Sakuya. Sayaka quickly closed her mouth with her hand.

"Is there something happening here lately?" asked Kyuubey.

"No, nothing. It's just that the witches kept appearing quite a lot recently," Mami tried her best to explain, making sure that she did not give any hint about Remilia.

"I see. So are you three going for a witch hunt?" Kyuubey asked.

"Yup," Madoka replied. "Are you going to join us, Kyuubey?"

"I suppose I will go with you since I didn't have any other important matter to do right now," Kyuubey answered as he leaped onto Madoka's shoulder. They took a tour around the city like they usually do. While they were busy searching for witches, they did not realized that someone was trailing them silently from above the buildings.

"So Mami really does have two new magical girl candidates, just like Kyuubey said," the person muttered. "Well, I think I should go back before they notice me."

...

"I'm exhausted," said Sayaka as she was finally be able to sat down at Mami's apartment after hours of endless walking, finding and defeating several witches and sometimes familiars.

"Yeah, me too," Madoka nodded.

"Good work you two," Mami praised both Madoka and Sayaka as she placed pancakes and tea that she had just prepared on the table.

"You should make a contract with me soon so that you can easily help Mami with witch hunting," Kyuubey suggested.

"Well, I still can't think of what should I wish for," Madoka said after she took a sip of her tea. "How about you, Sayaka?"

"Hmm. I haven't thought about it either," Replied Sayaka while looking at the ceiling.

"I see. If you already have something you're wishing for, just tell me," Said Kyuubey before he leaped onto the balcony.

"Are you leaving?" asked Mami.

"Yes, I had something to do tonight," replied Kyuubey. Mami nodded and waved at him as he left. The three of them continued to discuss and talked about whatever came to their mind.

...

That evening Homura stood at the front of a mansion that are located at Kizamino city, fourty kilometres from Mitakihara city. The mansion was very old and looked like it was abandoned. But Homura could not deny the fact that there are a person living there; the person that she wanted to kill. She stared at the name sign at the gate for a minute.

"Mikuni household," Homura muttered as she walked pass the mansion's garden. "She's still alive. I'm sure of it. She hid herself."

Homura silently went inside the mansion, searching thoroughly for the person. She checked every room that she came across and opened every door she saw, but sadly she found no one. Homura gritted her teeth in frustration as her effort of finding the person failed twice.

"Where did she escaped to!? No matter! I'll get her sooner or later!" Homura continued to mutter in anger. She left the mansion back to Mitakihara after her second attempt to find the person failed. However she did not realized that a group of people were watching her left the mansion in one of the room. It was Remilia and Sakuya, along with Patchouli, Marisa, Alice and Reimu who just had arrived at the city the night before.

"Man, she's really persistent," Marisa muttered.

"Just like you being persistent in stealing my books," Patchouli added.

"I'm not stealing! I'm just borrowing!"

"Yeah, you're just borrowing alright," Alice looked away from Marisa who was glaring at her.

"That's why I don't really like to be involved in solving incident. It's really troublesome," Reimu sighed as she spoke.

"My, my, Reimu. If you don't solve the incident, then the incident in Gensokyo will cannot be solved," Remilia said with a smile.

"But I don't remember agreeing to go outside Gensokyo. Yukari insisted me to tag along and then dragged me out."

"The more the merrier," Marisa pointed out with a grin. Reimu and Alice looked at her with a sigh. "Good thing we put on the barrier so that she can't see us."

"Barrier is a must to keep us from being discovered," said Patchouli.

"Akemi Homura sure is an interesting girl to observe," said Remilia, putting her hand under her chin. "It's a pity she's someone who hoard important informations."

"Umm, is it okay for me to change back now?" A voice asked Reimu and the others. They looked at the source of the voice. It was a girl in a white long dress magical outfit. Her silver hair matched perfectly with her clothes, covered by a hat. Her blue soul gem on the collar of her dress shone beautifully. Her green eyes looked at Reimu and the others. She was Mikuni Oriko, the person who Homura wanted to kill. She had just become a magical girl when Reimu, Marisa and Patchouli arrived to Kizamino city and met her the night before. All the informations about magical girls, witches and Kyuubey are obtained through Oriko because her ability to see the future had revealed to her some of the mystery of it. That was the reason Reimu and the others put a trust at her than other magical girls.

"I suppose you can change back now," Patchouli replied. Oriko reverts back into her normal clothes and walked towards them.

"Are you really that important that she needs to kill you?" Marisa asked. They had already known that the reason Homura came there the night before was to kill Oriko, since she held a handgun while sneaking into the mansion.

"I don't know. I think maybe it has something to do with my ability to foresee the future," Oriko replied.

"I see," Marisa scratched her head. "But thanks to Remilia, we know her ability beforehand. I can't believe she can manipulate time just like Sakuya."

"Yes, but her weapon was mainly for mid to long range combat," Sakuya explained.

"I see."

"Sakuya, prepare us some tea," Remilia said. Sakuya only smiled and nodded.

"Wait, miss Remilia. You all are my guest. You don't have to..." Oriko did not manage to finish her sentence as she could see some teacups and a teapot were already being set up on a table. She felt unconfortable to see that Sakuya was doing all the chores for her; cleaning the mansion and preparing food for them. "I'm sorry for troubling you, miss Sakuya."

"It's alright. After all, milady wants me to do it instead of you," Sakuya replied with a smile. All of them sat around the table, enjoying the tea.

"What'll we do now?" Marisa asked.

"I think we'll have to help Oriko collecting some grief seed for her for now," Alice replied.

"Is it possible to call the witches to us, Pache?" Remilia asked.

"I think it's possible. But not until we find a way for it to happen," Patchouli said as she continued sipping her tea.

"I'm sorry that you all had to help me collecting grief seeds," said Oriko.

"You don't need to apologize. After all, your life is too precious to become a witch," Alice said with a small could only smile at her. It made Oriko felt sad because she had realized that her own selfish wish had cost her life and freedom.

"Now then, I think I'll accompany Oriko for tonight's witch hunt," said Reimu as she got up from her chair.

"I'm joining too," said Marisa.

"T-thank you miss Reimu and miss Marisa," Oriko said with a bow.

"Its fine really. After all, I'm a little bored staying inside. I might as well take a walk outside," Reimu smiled.

"Ugh, why do those monsters is called witches? Those thing don't even resemble anything like a witch," said Marisa, crossing her hand. Reimu ignored Marisa's frown as she and Oriko slowly walked towards the door.

"Hey Reimu, are you going out with your miko clothes?" Marisa asked. Reimu raised her eyebrow as she looked at Marisa.

"Well, not that anyone will pay attention to my clothes during this time," Reimu replied. "We'll just have to avoid people from seeing us. Besides, I can quickly take out my talisman and gohei if I need it."

"I think it's a good idea to wear normal clothes, miss Reimu. Or at least you can wear a jacket," Oriko suggested.

"Okay," Reimu sighed as she followed Oriko to another room to get a jacket. Soon the three of them were outside Oriko's mansion. They walked past small houses and tall buildings. Clear night sky made the search a little bit easier. Street lights brightened the path that Reimu, Marisa and Oriko passed. Although it was already night time, but the city was still full of people walking around. Reimu felt relieved that she took Oriko's advice of wearing a jacket since they could not avoid from passing around a lot of people. Otherwise she would be a centre of attention.

"It seems there's no witch tonight," Oriko spoke in a disappointed tone. They had walked for half an hour but they could not find a single witch.

"Hmm. Strange," Reimu muttered. "Last night we encountered some witches."

"Maybe they're taking a holiday or something," Marisa joked. Reimu sighed while looking at Marisa.

"Should we go back to the mansion?" Oriko asked.

"But what about your soul gem? You need grief seeds to cleanse it right?" Reimu asked back. Although she did not really want to be involved in solving the incident and world outside Gensokyo, but that does not mean that she should leave someone like Oriko to live a miserable life due to someone or something's fault. In her mind, Oriko and other magical girls are not the one to be blamed because they did not know the consequences of making contract with Kyuubey.

"Yes, but it's okay. I still have few grief seeds to do the job," Oriko replied with a smile. Reimu just nodded at her. But not long after both of them started walking, Oriko's soul gem shone brightly. "M-miss Reimu! Miss Marisa!"

"Whoa! Perfect timing," said Marisa excitedly. "Let's go defeat that witch."

"I think I should defeat it alone, miss Marisa," said Oriko.

"Huh? Don't you want any help?" Marisa asked in a disappointed tone. Oriko only shook her head.

"I think it's a good idea for both of us to help you until you've adapted to battling against witches," Reimu suggested.

"Okay. I'm sorry for troubling you two," Oriko said, bowing her head slightly.

"It's okay. We're dealing with the same enemy," Marisa said cheerfully. The three of them went straight towards the location where the witch had appeared. Soon they arrived at an abandoned building. Oriko raised her hand and touched something in the air to open the invisible barrier in front of them. They engaged on dozens of familiars that are guarding the witch the moment they went inside the barrier. It did not took long for them to defeat the familiars since Reimu and Marisa's magic are more effective in wide ranged attack than Oriko.

"This is it," Oriko said as they arrived at the front of a door which will lead them to the witch. They entered the room and saw the witch standing tall, looking at them. Its body was full of spikes and blades, making its enemy difficult to engage in close combat.

"We'll try to draw its attention while you focus on attacking it," Reimu told Oriko.

"Okay," Oriko nodded. Reimu then took out her gohei and talisman and started attacking the witch. While Marisa tried her best to focus on shooting countless projectiles a few time. Being able to fly was an advantage for both of them to dodge the witch's attack. As the witch busy focusing its attention towards Reimu and Marisa, Oriko prepared dozens of spheres for her to attack. Since almost all of the spikes and blades on witch's body had already been destroyed, it makes Oriko's attack to inflict direct damage on the witch. The witch screamed as it weakened by the attack from the three of them. Finally the witch admitted its defeat as it slowly fall to the floor. The witch's barrier slowly crumbled as the witch's body disappeared, leaving a grief seed.

"Good work Oriko, especially since you've just became a magical girl yesterday," Reimu praised her.

"Thank you, miss Reimu," said Oriko. "But I couldn't have done it without you two."

"You're welcome," Reimu replied with a smile.

"Man, how I wish I had my broom and my hat," Marisa said.

"If you brought your broom with you, we wouldn't be able to walk around without people looking at you," Reimu said as she gave Marisa a smile.

"I know. Sheesh,"

"Shall we go back?" Oriko asked.

"Yeah, I'm getting hungry," Marisa replied, putting her hands on her stomach. Reimu only nodded. But not long after they took few steps, they heard a voice calling them.

"Hey you three," Reimu and the others looked behind them and saw a girl. Her red clothes matched her red hair perfectly. Her soul gem shone beautifully under her neck and she was holding a spear at her right hand. She looked at them with a grin. "It seems you three are new magical girls around here. I've already told Kyuubey not to recruit new girls here. But it seems he still did that. But it doesn't matter to me. What matter is I want you to give me the grief seed that you three just obtained."

"We're not magi... Mffm!" Marisa tried to speak but her mouth was covered by Reimu's hand.

"Quiet, Marisa. Don't let anyone know that we're not magical girls except Oriko," Reimu whispered. Marisa glared at her as Reimu let go of her hand. Then she looked at the girl and asked, "Hello there, may we know your name?"

"I don't usually give random people my name. But since you've asked, I'll tell you. My name is Kyoko Sakura," the girl replied.

"Miss Sakura, we all don't want to engage in meaningless battle. So can you please excuse us?" Reimu politely asked.

"Sure you can, after you give me the grief seed that is," Sakura demanded.

"Why do you want our grief seed for?" Oriko asked. "You can obtain it yourself, right?"

"Yes, I can obtain it myself. But I want you to give me the grief seed because this is my territory. So basically the grief seed you obtained is mine," Sakura said arrogantly.

"And if we don't give it to you?" Reimu asked. Without further warning, Sakura dashed towards them. She tried to thrust her spear multiple times at Reimu, but Reimu managed to dodge and block it with her gohei. Then the girl quickly turns her attention towards Marisa and Oriko. But she backed away from them because Oriko had shot some projectile towards her. She took a few steps away from them before stopping.

"Well, I must say. You all are quite skilled. But that doesn't mean I'll back away," Sakura said.

"Please wait," said Oriko. "We don't want to fight you."

"Yeah, yeah. Like I would stop because you begged," Sakura replied before she started to charge in again. But she did not managed to attack as pink orb projectiles slammed in front of her, stopping her from taking another steps foward. All of them suddenly tied with pink coloured chain. They looked up at where the projectiles being shot and saw two figures decending from the sky. The next thing they saw was two little girls that are not more than ten years old. One of them had a medium length brown hair tied into a twintail and wearing a white and blue dress. The other one had a long blonde hair, also tied into a twintail. She wore a black outfit and was covered with a black cape. Both of them were holding a staff.

"Please stop this fighting," the brown haired girl said.

"Heh, you told us to stop fighting while you just shoot something at me. That means you're trying to pick a fight with me!" Sakura shouted. "And you even tied me with this weird coloured chain."

"We had to use bind to restrict your movement because you all are using unknown magic and you're fighting outside the barrier," the blonde girl said.

"Of course we're fighting outside the barrier because the witch had already been defeated," Sakura said.

"Witch? What are you talking about?" The brown haired girl asked.

"Hey, are you a newly contracted magical girl? You must be joking if you're this strong but you don't know about witches," Sakura said.

"Well, I'm not fairly new to being magical girls. But I'm really new to the term 'witches'," the girl responded. Sakura started to have a headache as she heard the girl's answer. In her mind, the two girls are only teasing her. Her anger started to rise as she struggled to break free from the girl's magic.

"Umm, could you two let us go?" Marisa spoke. The two girls looked at Marisa, Reimu and Oriko.

"I'm sorry. But I think we'll have to arrest and interrogate you all since you're using unknown magic system as well as being suspects of time distortion," the blonde girl said.

"Time distortion? What do you mean?" Oriko asked. But before the blonde girl could explain, Reimu and the others as well as Sakura saw something fairly new; something that looked like a large gem on the staff that the blonde girl was holding blinking and spoke.

[_Sir, an unknown magic user approaching at high speed._]

"From which direction?" The blonde girl asked. But before her staff could respond, they saw three figures appeared behind Sakura, walking past her and towards them. It was Patchouli.

"Miss Patchouli!? What are you doing out here?" Oriko startled.

"I might as well want to join in witch hunt," replied Patchouli. "But more importantly, what are you three doing?"

"Can't you see we're being tied by some magical enhanced chain here!?" Marisa shouted. Suddenly the same chain also appeared around Patchouli, binding her arms against her body. Patchouli looked at the blonde girl.

"Can you tell me what are you doing?" Patchouli asked.

"I've used a bind to restrict your movement," the girl replied. Patchouli sighed as she was getting annoyed by the hostility the two girls showed. She looked at Reimu who only shooked her head, indicating that she don't want her to do anything.

"So what now?" Patchouli asked.

"We'll bring you somewhere for further interrogation," the brown haired girl answered.

"I see," Patchouli did not like the idea of being interrogated. However she had no choice but to agree.

"Hey brat! What about me!? Release me right now!" Sakura shouted.

"I'm sorry. But you'll be coming with us too," the blonde girl replied. Sakura growled while looking at the blonde girl. She tried to break free but proved effortless.

"Yuuno, we're ready to go. You can teleport us now," the brown haired girl seemed to communicate with someone. Magic circles appeared below everyone who was present there. All Reimu and the others could see was a blinding white light before they saw the scenery changed into a small room. What they saw after they came out from the room was something spectacular. All they could see outside the window are stars and dark sky.

"Hey wait... Are we.. In space?" Marisa muttered.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: It's A Strange World**

"Hey," Marisa called the blonde girl. "Are we really in space?"

"Yes, we're in a spaceship to be precise," the blonde girl replied.

"Amazing. So this is what the space looked like," Patchouli said as she looked at the window.

"Yeah, and it's been a while since we launched our space rocket too," Marisa said. She recalled her memories when Reimu, Remilia, Sakuya and her went to the moon using a space rocket created by Patchouli only to be beaten by Watatsuki no Yorihime.

"Hey, is this a dream? I must be having a dream or imagining things because we were at an abandoned building just now," Sakura muttered as her eyes also looked outside with full of amazement. Yet she was confused with the sudden change in environment.

"You'd better believe it kid," Marisa said. Sakura glared at Marisa when she heard she was called a kid.

"Miss, may we know both of your names? It's hard to call the two of you without names," Reimu asked. There was no response from the two girls.

"I'm Takamachi Nanoha," the brown haired girl finally spoke. Then she gestured her hand towards the blonde girl. "And she's Fate Testarossa. Both of us are temporary mages in Time Space Administration Bureau, or TSAB for short."

"TSAB? What's that?" Marisa asked.

"It's an interdimensional security force that monitors and solve any problems related to magic and lost logia, or magical artifacts," Fate answered.

"Like a police or army force right?" Oriko asked.

"Correct."

"Nanoha... Fate," a voice called the two girls. Nanoha and Fate turned around. Reimu and the others also looked at the direction where the voice came from and saw five people walking towards them. One of them was a girl on a wheelchair, being pushed by a lady with short blonde hair. Then to the left was a girl with long red hair tied into a twin braids. She seemed to be the same age as the girl on the wheelchair. The lady beside the girl had a pink hair tied into a ponytail. The fifth person was a man with muscular figure, white hair, a pair of animal ears and a tail. Reimu only observed them without saying anything.

"Ah, Hayate. How's your mission?" Nanoha asked the girl on the wheelchair.

"We're doing fine and managed to keep the problem under control," Hayate replied. Then she looked at Reimu and the others. "Umm, why are they being under bind spell?"

"They're the suspects of the time distortion problems that occured," Fate replied.

"Really!?" Hayate seemed surprised. "But they looked like a nice person."

"That's because we're not the bad guys that caused whatever you called as time distortion problem," Sakura argued.

"That's what bad people always said before they show their true colour," the girl with twin braids said.

"What do you say, brat!?" Sakura raised her voice.

"Vita, it's not nice to say something like that to someone we've just met," Hayate said with a smile. She pinched the girl's nose for a few second. The girl, Vita, then bowed towards Reimu and the others, indicating she was apologizing. Hayate turned to look at them, "I'm sorry for my family's sudden behavior. I'm Yagami Hayate. This is Vita, Shamal, Signum and Zafira."

"Nice to meet you, miss Hayate. My name is Hakurei Reimu," Reimu said with a smile. Then she looked and gestured at Marisa, Patchouli, Oriko and Sakura with her head and eyes. "This is Kirisame Marisa, Patchouli Knowledge, Mikuni Oriko and Kyoko Sakura."

"Miss Fate, would you mind to do some explanation because all of us didn't know anything about time distortion that you've kept mentioned?" asked Patchouli. Fate and Nanoha led them into a room instead of responding to Patchouli's question.

"Shall we go inside too?" Shamal asked.

"I guess so," Hayate replied. Hayate and her companion followed them from behind. They seemed eager to know the detail of the situation. Inside, there was a lady with long green hair tied into a ponytail, sitting on a chair behind a large office table and boy with dark blue hair stood beside her. Both of them wore a uniform similar to what someone would see in the army. They looked at Reimu and the others as they entered the room.

"So are these the suspects?" The boy spoke.

"Yes, and they were fighting each other when we found them," Fate answered.

"I see."

"I'm Lindy Harlaown, the captain in charge for this spaceship, Arthra. And this is Chrono Harlaown," the lady with green hair introduced themselves. Reimu once again introduced herself and the others with a humble and polite manner despite the awkward situation.

"Umm, admiral Lindy. Shouldn't you be at the bridge?" Nanoha asked.

"Well, I'm planning on seeing the people that you've brought over," Lindy replied.

"Hey, can you release us from this thing that you called 'bind' already?" Sakura asked in a distressful tone. "It's getting uncomfortable."

"I'm sorry, miss Sakura. But I'm afraid we won't release you and your friends just yet. According to the report made by Nanoha and Fate just now, you're all are using unknown magic system, fighting outside barrier and you all are a suspect for time distortion problems that occurred," Chrono replied.

"So that means we're dangerous?" Oriko asked.

"Yes."

"That's merely an accusation," Sakura yelled.

"So you judge us based on weak proof," Patchouli said.

"What do you mean?" While Chrono ignored Sakura, Patchouli's word caught his attention.

"You accused that we're involved in some problem that you refer to as time distortion just because we're using magic that are unknown to you and saw us fighting outside something you referred to as a barrier. Then all of us that you've captured should also regard you and your friends as dangerous and could be involved in the problem because you're also using a magic that are unknown to us," Patchouli elaborated her explanation. Chrono was speechless as he looked at Patchouli. He clenched his hands as he could not counter-argue to what Patchouli had said. Lindy only listened to arguments made by Patchouli. Nanoha and the others only kept quiet. There was silence in the room for a few second.

"Well, just like Patchouli had just said," Marisa spoke. "It's unreasonable to accuse us for something that we didn't do without strong proof."

"The culprit may be anyone beside us since there are more magical girls out there," Oriko said.

"You mean there are more magical girls!?" Nanoha asked. She seemed either surprised or excited upon hearing Oriko said like that. Maybe she had not seen any other magical girls other than her friends and her.

"Yes," Oriko replied.

"I hope that you can release us so that we can have further discussion," said Reimu politely.

"Nanoha and Fate, are they really someone who's behind the problem?" Lindy asked after she gazed at Reimu and the others, observing every one of them.

"Um... Well..." Nanoha was in loss for words. Fate did not respond.

"Could you release them then?" Lindy asked with a smile.

"B-but admiral, we don't know what they're capable of. It's safer this way so that they can't use magic without summoning their tools or attack us without breaking the bind first," Chrono argued.

"I can use my magic anytime now I want even if I don't have to break the bind," Patchouli said in a calm tone. Chrono looked at her with a disbelief look.

"Patchouli, Don't use any magic!" Reimu shook her head.

"Does it matter now?" Patchouli asked. "They've already regard us as magic users. So it's no use hiding it anymore."

"Patchouli's right. I'm also getting tired of pretending to be either magical girls or normal people," Marisa said.

"She's just bluffing so that we'll be scared. I doubt you can use magic without any tools," Vita mocked, shrugging her hands. All of the sudden, the atmosphere in the room changed. All the people in the room could felt someone released an uncomfortable aura. Nanoha looked at Patchouli who looked like muttering something. The chain that binds Patchouli and the others slowly cracked and shattered.

"What the-!?" Fate gasped.

"The bind! It broke!" Shamal surprised.

"Impossible! How could you all break the spell!? No one could break free from bind without using magic or tools. I don't even see you use brute force to break free," Zafira widened his eyes.

"I am the one who broke the bind and I'm using magic right before your eyes," Patchouli said. "It seems that your bind is a basic form of restriction magic. I've only tried few spells to dispel the bind and it worked."

"I don't see any magic circle activated," Chrono said.

"Magic circle is not a necessary feature when using magic," said Patchouli, looking at Chrono.

"You need to behave yourself. I can't guarantee you and your friend's safety if you try using any magic," Signum suddenly appeared in front of Patchouli, pointing a sword towards her. Her clothes changed into something similar to a knight. Nanoha and Fate took a fighting stance. Shamal, Zafira and Vita also did the same while trying to protect Hayate from possible harm. Chrono stood cautiously beside Lindy, preparing for any sudden assault. Reimu looked at the distressful and tension atmosphere before she finally sighed.

"We're sorry for using magic without your consent," Reimu said. "Can we please continue our discussion without this awkward situation?"

"I suppose we can," Lindy said. She took a few deep breaths after she witnessed the tension that she did not expect to occur. "Everyone, please dismiss your weapon."

"But admiral, they tried to start possible assault," Signum opposed. She still drew her sword towards Patchouli without moving it even an inch.

"I wouldn't use my magic if we weren't treated with such hostility. Besides, I only dispel the bind that you casted on us. Nothing more, nothing less," Patchouli said.

"Miss Patchouli's right," Hayate suddenly spoke. Everyone looked at her before she continued, "If they were the bad guys, they've probably already used their magic towards us anytime now after I saw what they're capable of just now. But they only dispel the bind magic that Nanoha and Fate casted on them."

"Finally, someone who's willing to understand us," Sakura sighed. She and Oriko only kept silent ever since the argument and tension in the room started to rise. Both of them were speechless as they were trying to comprehend about what had happened in front of their eyes.

"We apologize for the misunderstood that me and my crew had made," Lindy said.

"No offence taken," Marisa said cheerfully, putting both her hands behind her head. Once again they all became silent for a while. Nanoha and the others changed from their magical girl outfit back to their normal clothes. Sakura and Oriko also did the same. Then all of them except Oriko looked at Reimu, Marisa and Patchouli who they assumed still in their magical girl outfit.

"Miss Reimu, Marisa and Patchouli," Nanoha suddenly spoke. "Aren't you going to change back to your normal clothes?"

"Well, this is our normal clothes," Marisa replied with a smile. Nanoha looked closely at their clothes for the first time. Patchouli wore a mob cap and a purple dress that looked something similar to a pajama. While Marisa wore black and white dress and an apron. One would assume her working as a maid or someone who cosplayed as a maid. Since Reimu had took off and lost her jacket during her fight with the witch earlier, Nanoha could see that she was wearing red skirt, red sleeveless top with a white collar, a pair of detached sleeves and a large red ribbon tied to the back of her head.

"I think that the tension built in here had subsided, I suppose we can start with some explanation right?" Lindy said. She curved a friendly smile so that no one inside the room would feel awkward.

"I guess so," Chrono replied. Then he turned towards Reimu and the others. "Then we'll start by answering your questions."

"Could you guys first explain something about time distortion that you all kept mentioned?" asked Marisa.

"Lately there's a little bit of disturbance in time, which we would like to call it a time distortion or time disorder. At first we didn't realize about it. But as we travel through space and dimensions, Nanoha, Fate and Hayate realized that there's something wrong when they got back home after a mission. Everyone around them was doing the same thing twice. Even Shamal said that Hayate's health test showed the same result," Chrono started to explain.

"You mean like deja-vu?" Patchouli asked. "Like you felt that you or someone had done something before."

"Yes, something like that. So they told us about it. At first, we thought they were only feeling tired after doing some mission. But after roughly a month and a half, they told us the same thing happened again. We started to feel curious about it and started conducting an investigation for about four months. We've sent several mages to Earth. To our surprise, they've made a same report over and over again during those four months," Chrono continued to explain without a pause.

Patchouli only nodded as she listened. Reimu was a little bit lost as she was trying so hard to absorb every detail that Chrono had just said. Marisa scratched the back of her head as she did not have a single idea of what she just had heard. Oriko and Sakura also seemed clueless since the information was beyond their capability to understand. None of them said a single word. Marisa looked at Nanoha and the others. They seemed to understand the explanation well.

_Ugh, they're just kids but they seem to understand what that Chrono kid was saying_, Marisa thought.

"So basically a certain time was repeated to some extent before it rewinds back again?" Patchouli asked.

"Yes."

"But how are you able to avoid from being affected by this time distortion? How did you know the culprit was in Japan?" Oriko asked.

"We're not really sure about it. It seems the other dimensions aren't affected by the distortion, although it's yet to be proved. Nanoha and the others also weren't being affected by it since they were with us from time to time. We also called them aboard every time before that problem occurred to make sure they aren't affected by it," Lindy replied. "We were able to confirm the source of the problem was from Japan because there's a strong surge of mana flowed detected when the time disturbance occurred which was channeled from it. Though we couldn't find the exact location."

"The other problem was that we're having a hard time finding the culprit," Chrono continued after admiral Lindy finished her sentence.

"Why is that?" Marisa asked.

"That's because we weren't be able to locate them if they didn't use their magic. Even if we did, we'll only ended up capturing the wrong person," Chrono replied.

"Like what you all just did," Sakura interrupted.

"Yes, just like miss Sakura said. Since you mentioned that there are more magical girls or magic users, it'll lower the probability to find the culprit. It may probably take two or three cycles of this one month before we can manage to identify and capture them... Probably more than that," Chrono continued.

"When will the time be reversed back again?" Patchouli asked.

"About three weeks from now," Chrono answered.

"I see," Patchouli said as she put her hand under her chin.

"Ugh, I'm starting to have a headache to understand all this," Marisa muttered.

"Shh, be quiet Marisa," Reimu whispered.

"What about unknown magic system? What do you mean by it?" Oriko asked.

"Ah, I'm also planning to ask you all about that," Chrono replied. "Normally, we mages used a device in the form of staff, sword, ring and many other forms. It helped us in casting magic spells and performing tasks that we couldn't manage to do it by ourselves. But Nanoha and Fate said that you used something different than ours. Would you mind explain to us about your magic system that you all used?"

Oriko looked at Sakura. She could not explain anything regarding magical girls due to her lack of experience, especially since she had just becoming one the night before. Sakura noticed that Oriko was looking at her with a worried expression. She sighed as she figured out and assumed that Oriko wanted her to explain everything that she could.

"We obtained magical powers after we made a wish with a creature named Kyuubey. In return, we fought against something that we called a witch," Sakura explained. She extended her left arm and showed a ring that she wore. The ring changed into a red gem that looked like an egg, framed with metallic casing.

"Wow, it's beautiful," Hayate said.

"This is called a soul gem. This is the source of magical power for us magical girls and we were able to transform to our magical clothes and materialize our weapon with this, like you all saw earlier. Over time, our soul gem will darken and become dull. So we need a grief seed which we obtained from the witch to purify our soul gem," Sakura continued to explain.

"What about the witch? What are they?" Nanoha asked.

"A witch is a creature that spread despair. They are born from negative desires such as curses. We couldn't see them since they tend to hide inside a barrier that they've create, unless we enter the barrier," Sakura then shuffled the pocket on her jacket and took out a grief seed. "I can't really explain how the witches looked like since each of them had different appearance. But when we defeated the witch, the barrier will disappear and it will leave this thing which we called a grief seed."

"Thank you for explaining. I couldn't even explain that long," Oriko whispered with a smile as soon as Sakura finished explaining. Sakura looked away, avoiding eye contact with Oriko.

"What about miss Patchouli, Reimu and Marisa?" Fate asked.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Reimu asked.

"Well... I don't see you use something like a soul gem that miss Sakura showed earlier," Fate continued. "Not to mention you said that you don't need to change your clothes, which is unusual."

"Now that she mentioned it. Are you really magical girls?" Sakura curiously looked at Reimu, Marisa and Patchouli.

"What should we do, Reimu?" Marisa whispered. Reimu looked around before she sighed. It was uncertain whether she should explain everything or not. But in her mind, their secret will be found out sooner or later no matter how hard they tried to hide it.

"Before I explain anything, I need everyone that are present here to keep this matter a secret no matter what... until the time is right that is," Reimu said in a serious tone. No one opened their mouth to say 'yes' or 'no'.

"Alright, everything that you'll be telling us here will be kept confidental," Lindy finally spoke. She was not afraid of Reimu. However Lindy respects the request that she had just made. "Everyone inside this room, I hope you all will keep everything that miss Reimu will be telling us a secret."

"Roger," Nanoha and the others responded. Reimu slowly took out a card.

"A card? What's it for?" Shamal asked. Instead of answering the question, the card flashed with white light. As the light slowly disappeared, Nanoha and the others saw two large spheres formed and hovered around Reimu.

"Isn't that..." Nanoha wanted to ask. But she was interrupted by Reimu's answer.

"If you think that this is a yin-yang orb, then you're correct. The card that I held just now is called a spell card, which the three of us used in a duel," Reimu explained.

"Beautiful," Hayate said. Her eyes were wide with amazement as she kept seeing something interesting one after another. "A yin-yang orb, huh? It made me think that you're a shrine maiden,"

"She's a shrine maiden all right," Marisa said with a smile.

"Really!? Wow! This is the first time I saw a real shrine maiden with magical powers," Hayate started to feel excited.

"So you three are shrine maidens?" Nanoha asked.

"Nope, I'm an ordinary magician. While Patchouli is a hundred years old witch," the word 'hundred years old' accidentally slipped out from Marisa's mouth in a carefree attitude when she replied to Nanoha's question. She then realized that she was not in Gensokyo. She quickly closed her mouth with her hand.

"The term witch is inappropriate here," Patchouli glared at Marisa in a displeasing look. "People will misunderstand about it. And why do you have to tell almost everyone about my age? It's rude."

"H-hundred years old!?" Nanoha was surprised as she looked at Patchouli. "But you look young and beautiful."

Honest and sincere words that came from Nanoha made Patchouli blushed. She quickly let out a few small cough. Marisa grinned as she looked at her. Reimu only curved a small smile. While it was normal to hear someone lived for hundred years, it seemed that was the first time Signum, Vita, Zafira and Shamal saw someone that was a hundred years old but still looked that young.

"You kids sure do like to surprise a lot," Marisa said with a small laugh. Nanoha scratched her head and bowed, apologizing for her silly attitude.

"Wait! Does that mean the three of you are not human?" Chrono asked.

"To correct Marisa's statement, I'm also a magician just like her. Whether I'm a human or not, it's up to your imagination," Patchouli answered.

"Me and Reimu are just a normal sixteen years old human," Marisa said cheerfully.

"Back to my explanation," Reimu let out a small cough. "The magic that the three of us used are quite different from the magic that you used. While you used something like a soul gem and a staff to cast magic, we used a card and items that can be included to make the spell card. Though we can cast a magic by uttering some spell and use other magical items, since it's to balance everything in a duel, I've developed this spell card system."

"A duel? Does that mean you're fighting against each other?" Signum asked.

"More or less like that."

"Wait. If you're not a magical girl like me and that girl, then why did you hunt witches?" Sakura pointed her finger at herself and Oriko as she asked the question.

"We fought the witches and not hunt them," Reimu replied. "And we fought them for a reason."

"A reason?" Sakura continued to ask.

"Simply put, recently they had created problems at the place where we lived," Reimu said.

"Recently?"

"Yeah, about one week ago they appeared out of nowhere," Reimu answered.

"They really caused a lot of trouble. That's why we want to find out what made them to appear. So fighting and defeating them is one of the ways to find some clues," Patchouli said.

"Well, I guess that all from me. Are there any other questions?" Reimu looked around. No one said anything for a moment.

"I guess that's about it," Lindy spoke. Nanoha and the others slowly nodded. She got up from her seat and bowed, "Once again, I sincerely apologize for the misunderstood,"

"It's okay," Reimu replied with a smile. All of them went outside the room before Lindy called Reimu and Sakura.

"Miss Reimu and miss Sakura, can we have a moment?" Lindy asked. The three of them went back inside the room. While the rest waited for them in another room where Reimu and the others first arrived at the Arthra earlier.

"Fate," a voice called as the person entered the room. It was a lady with long orange hair. She had a pair of animal ears and a fluffy tail, just like Zafira.

"Ah, Arf. Did you have a good rest?" Fate asked.

"Yes," Arf replied. She noticed Marisa, Patchouli and Oriko before she looked back at Fate. "Who are they?"

"Well... They're... Our new friends," Fate replied hastily. Arf respond with a nod and smiled. Then she turned towards Marisa and the others and bowed.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Arf, Fate's familiar. Thank you for being nice towards Fate and become friends with her," Arf introduced herself.

"I'm Mikuni Oriko," Oriko introduced herself with a smile. She did not let the hostility that the five of them received earlier from becoming friendly towards Nanoha and the others. Then she gestured her hand at Patchouli and Marisa. "This is Patchouli Knowledge and Kirisame Marisa."

"And them?" Arf asked, looking at Reimu and Sakura who were just entering the room.

"That's Hakurei Reimu and Kyoko Sakura," Marisa said. Arf then introduced herself at Reimu and Sakura.

"Well, let's head back," said Reimu. All of the sudden, Nanoha tugged her sleeve. Reimu looked at her and asked, "Yes, what is it?"

"Umm... Miss Reimu. Both Fate and I are sorry for capturing and mistaken the five of you as the suspects," Nanoha said.

"It's all right. We humans are always make mistakes. But that's what makes us be able to move forward and become strong, by building up courage to admit our mistakes and try to set things back to how it was," Reimu replied as she patted Nanoha's head. Nanoha's face brightened a bit after she heard Reimu's speech. She felt like all the burden that she carried because of the mistake she did earlier had been lifted off.

...

"I'm glad we've made it back," said Marisa as they arrived back at the abandoned building. Oriko noticed that Sakura silently walked away from them without saying a single word.

"Wait, where are you going?" Oriko asked.

"I'm out of here. I don't like crowds," Sakura replied without looking at Oriko. Oriko suddenly grabbed Sakura's hand, making her startled. Before Sakura managed to say anything, she felt Oriko put something on her hand. She looked at her hand and saw three grief seeds. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"We apologize for causing you a lot of trouble. It's my token of apology," Oriko replied.

"Hey, hold on Oriko. That's your hard earned grief seeds. You shouldn't give it to her just like that," Marisa said.

"It's alright, miss Marisa," Oriko said with a smile. Then she turned to look at Sakura. "I hope we won't become enemies or rivals the next time we meet."

Sakura blushed when she saw Oriko's sincere smile. It reminded her of someone dear to her. She quickly turned around and said something before she started walking, "Man, that's why I don't like good girls like you."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Oriko asked. However Sakura only walked away instead of answering her question. Oriko watched Sakura disappeared in the alleyway before she turned towards Reimu and the others.

"Well, let's head back to the mansion," said Reimu. Patchouli and Oriko only nodded.

"Hey Reimu, what about them?" Marisa asked. They looked at a group of people behind them. Nanoha smiled nervously. Fate and Arf talked with each other. Hayate smiled as she saw Reimu staring at them. Signum, Shamal, Vita and Zafira only stood behind Hayate, looking around.

"Well, it can't be helped. Miss Lindy asked me to take them in for tonight. She said that they will be joining us because it may help them to find some clue," Reimu replied. "Is it really okay with you to let them stay overnight, Oriko?"

"Yes, I'm kind of happy miss Lindy trust us. Afterall, there's no school tomorrow. So there's no problem having them at the mansion tonight," Oriko replied with a smile.

"But how did they know that fighting witches will help them in finding clue about their time distortion problem?" Marisa asked.

"Well frankly speaking, I don't know. Miss Lindy also said it's just a hunch," Reimu replied.

"Ugh, I'm having a headache seeing too many people right now," said Marisa, scratching her head.

"Well just like you said, the more the merrier," Reimu said with a smirk. Marisa only glared at Reimu without saying anything other than sighing.

"Thank you for having us tonight. We hope that we won't be a burden to you," said Hayate, bowing slightly towards Oriko.

"You're welcome," replied Oriko. "In fact, I'm happy that you all want to stay over."

It did not took them long to arrive in front of Oriko's mansion. As they passed through the gate, Nanoha's pendant suddenly blinked.

[_Master, there's a high amount of magical energy detected_]

Nanoha and her friends cautiously looked around as they could felt an overwhelming magical energy. The energy also seemed to be coming from the mansion. At the same time they were confused when they saw that Reimu and the others did not bother to be on guard.

"What are you guys doing? We're going to leave you outside if you don't want to come inside," Reimu said.

"Can't the four of you feel high amount of magical energy surrounding us?" Signum asked.

"Ah, that must be the barrier that we had set up," Patchouli answered.

"Barrier? But we don't see any barrier," Zafira said, crossing his arms as he continued to observe his surroundings.

"Yeah, usually we can see a barrier," Arf said.

"The barrier couldn't be seen with naked eyes nor we can feel it outside the mansion unless we pass through the gate," Patchouli continued. "Only the one who casted it can see the barrier clearly."

"I see. That explains everything," Fate said with a nod.

"Are there also a barrier inside the mansion?" Shamal asked. "We could feel clearly that there's also high concentration of magical energy from the inside."

"Oh, that's just our friends," Marisa grinned.

"Friends?" Hayate asked.

"Let's go inside and you'll see what I mean," Marisa replied. As they went inside, Nanoha and the others were full of astonishment. While it was normal for them to see magic, but what Nanoha, Fate and Hayate saw right at that moment was something that amazed them.

"Amazing," Those are the only word that came out from Nanoha's mouth.

* * *

**At Arthra:**

"Captain, are we sure we're going to let Nanoha and the others join them?" Arthra's officer cadet, Amy, asked. "We don't know whether they're an ally or an enemy."

"I'm sure they'll be just fine. I believe that they're not the enemy," Lindy replied.

"But will they be able to find some clues this time?"

"I hope so," Lindy said as she sipped her tea. Then she looked at the screen that shows images of Reimu, Patchouli, Marisa, Oriko and Sakura. Then she muttered, "It's a strange world we're in right now."

_To be continued..._

* * *

**Afterword:**

Hmm... I've tried to balance Touhou's cast with Nanoha's cast. But since I'm trying to make the characters alive, it seemed a little bit impossible to weaken Touhou character's power (Although I'm powering them down for now ^^;). So, there you have it. A strange new world for all of them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Witch**

Nanoha and the other looked around as they walked inside the mansion. They were not interested in anything in particular. Their eyes only trailed something that had been hovering all over the mansion. The moment they went inside earlier, it stopped for a second and looked at them before it resumed doing housework.

"Is there something wrong?" Oriko asked.

"Oh nothing. It's just that there are a lot of dolls floating around," Nanoha replied.

"And they're doing chores. That's amazing," Fate said.

"Not to mention they're cute," Hayate said with excitement, clasping her hands.

"Thank you for praising my dolls," a voice spoke to them. Nanoha and the others looked at the direction where the voice came from and saw a girl with short blonde hair. Her skin was quite pale, which made Nanoha felt she was looking at a large living doll. She wore a blue and white Victorian or European styled dress, a pink hair band and belt. They also saw she carried a large and thick book, tied with pink ribbon. There were two dolls hovering beside her.

"Ah, Alice. We're home," Marisa greeted, looking at the person. "We're hungry. Is the food ready?"

"Where have you all been?" Alice asked. "I've been waiting for you all."

"We're sorry miss Alice. All of us were in space earlier," Oriko replied with a bow, apologizing towards Alice. She did not know what else to tell Alice.

"Space?" Alice raised her eyebrow.

"Well, a lot of things happened," Reimu said. They talked to Alice about what they had just experienced earlier from the beginning until the end. Nanoha and her friends only looked at the five of them talking to each other.

"Shamal, is it just me or she looked almost like you?" Vita asked as she stared at Alice. They would mistaken Alice for Shamal since they had almost the same appearance except she looked little bit younger, shorter and had a different eye colour than her.

"You're right, she does look like me," Shamal was a little bit excited to see someone who looked the same as her.

"Let me guess. They're magical girls... And boy that you meant?" Alice asked as she observed Nanoha and the others.

"Yeah, but they refered themselves as mages rather than magical girls and boy. They're not the same as Oriko, just like us being different from her," Marisa answered.

"I see."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Takamachi Nanoha. We'll be staying here tonight. I hope we won't be a burden," Nanoha spoke. The others also introduced themselves. All of them bowed slightly towards Alice. Alice also bowed in response.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Alice Margatroid," Alice introduced herself. Fate's stomach growled all of the sudden, making her quickly looked down with embarrassment. Alice only smiled while looking at Fate. "I guess you all are hungry. Let's go and have a dinner."

...

The dining room was beautifully decorated with antiques. Scent from roses that are placed at the middle of the dining table filled the air. Cold night wind blew through the windows cools the room. Nanoha and the others sat around the dining table. Several dolls hovered around them, carrying bowls, plates, chopsticks, glasses, foods and drinks and put all of it on the table.

"Miss Alice, does your dolls move on it's own?" Signum asked. She gazed at the dolls that looked like interacting among themselves.

"To be precise, I'm the one who manipulated and move the dolls with my magic," Alice replied.

"But your doll seemed to be talking to one another."

"Personal amusement," Alice answered shortly. Signum made a confused look before Alice continued, "What I mean is I like to make my doll seemed alive although I'm the one who manipulated them."

"Ah," Signum nodded as she now understood what Alice meant.

"Well let's eat," Marisa said happily as Alice's dolls finished putting the dishes on the table. They did not talk much as they enjoyed their dinner. As soon as they finished eating, Alice's doll that was hovering around came and collects all the dishes.

"By the way miss Oriko, where are your parents? I haven't seen them around," Hayate asked when she noticed something while she looked the people around her. Oriko's expression changed for a second before she managed to change it back. Then she quickly curved a small smile at Hayate. But sudden change in Oriko's expression was noticed by Shamal.

"Hayate..." Shamal quickly tugged Hayate's shirt. Hayate looked at her. Shamal only shook her head and Hayate immediately understood what she meant.

"I'm sorry for asking such uncomfortable question," Hayate said, lowering her head. She realized that her question had brought unpleasant feeling towards Oriko.

"It's alright. I know someone will ask about it sooner or later," Oriko replied. She took a deep breath before she continued. "My parents are already dead. My father hanged himself in this very mansion because he was found guilty for being a corrupted politician. Then my mother also did the same when she could not bear the truth and humility that we've received. When I was in a state of depression and lost the will to live, that's when Kyuubey appeared and offer me to make a wish. In return, I have to become a magical girl to fight the witches. But everything comes with a cost."

"What cost?" Hayate lifted up her head a little bit. Oriko only looked at her without answering the question. Hayate looked down again without raising her head to look at anyone. She felt that she had disrespect Oriko and hurt her feelings. Nanoha, Fate and Arf exchanged eye contacts. Signum, Shamal, Vita and Zafira only kept quiet. The foods that they enjoyed earlier suddenly became tasteless in their tongue. While Reimu and the others only glanced at Oriko then at Nanoha and the others.

"I'm sorry," Hayate repeated her apology. All of the sudden she felt a warm embrace from behind. Hayate looked back and saw it was Oriko who was hugging her with a smile.

"It's okay. I'm not offended. It's not your fault," Oriko said.

"But my question must've bring back your painful memories of them," Hayate said.

"It's alright. After all, now I've got you all that'll cheer me up," Oriko replied with a smile, patting Hayate's head. Hayate seemed cheered up a little bit after hearing Oriko said that. Fate and the others including Reimu, Marisa, Patchouli and Alice only smiled at them.

"So... What should we do now?" Marisa finally spoke, trying to get rid of somber and gloomy atmosphere. "Are we going to hunt witches after this?"

"I think it's better for us to get some rest. It's getting late," Reimu replied while glancing at the clock on the wall. It was already 9 PM.

"I agree," Patchouli said.

"Even Oriko and the rest seemed to feel tired," Alice said.

"But didn't Oriko need to collect more grief seeds?" Marisa asked.

"No need to worry about me miss Marisa," Oriko answered. "I still had two more grief seeds. We can go for some witch hunt tomorrow. After all, Nanoha and the rest might want to see witches."

"Ah, okay," Marisa said. Then she looked at Nanoha and the others. "Is that okay with you all?"

"I think we're okay with all your decision," Fate replied.

"Agree," Arf said.

"I think I'm going to prepare bedrooms for the eight of you," Oriko said as she stood up.

"Ah, I think one room is enough for us. We'll sleep together," Hayate said. She turned and looked at the others and asked, "Is it okay with you all?"

"I think that's a great idea. We don't want to trouble miss Oriko too much," Nanoha said with a smile.

"I'll be fine sleeping at the living room," Zafira said.

"I see. It's decided then," Oriko said.

"My dolls will help you, Oriko," Alice said. Oriko smiled and nodded. All of them left the dining room and went towards the living room while Oriko and several dolls went upstairs to prepare the room. As they entered the living room, they saw there were two people that they had not seen since they went inside the mansion. It was Remilia who was sitting on a large sofa, sipping her tea and watching a television. While Sakuya stood behind her. Remilia only smiled as she noticed them without saying a word. Nanoha assumed that Remilia was not a human since she saw a pair of bat wings behind her back. All of them could feel high amount of magical energy radiated from Remilia as they all sat on available sofa near her.

"Oh my, some newfaces. Mind to introduce them to me?" Remilia said, looking at Reimu who just entered the room.

"They're our new friends," Reimu said. Then she introduced Nanoha and the others, who bowed slightly towards Remilia. Remilia then introduced herself and Sakuya in return.

"Anyway, while Oriko still preparing bedroom for Nanoha and the others we should discuss about how to avoid from being found by Kyuubey and Kyoko from now on," Patchouli spoke.

"Kyoko? Who's that?" Remilia asked.

"Sakura Kyoko. Another magical girl just like Oriko but she seemed a little bit experienced," Marisa replied.

"So she saw the four of you used your magic?"

"Yeah, she saw all of it, including them," Marisa said while pointing her thumb at Nanoha and the others.

"Heh, it seems your plan to hide our presence are not really working, Reimu," Remilia said with a giggle. Reimu glared at her with an annoying look.

"It can't be helped," Reimu said with a sigh. "But I didn't give every detail about us, unlike you."

"Hey, it's not that I know the plan," Remilia argued.

"That's your fault for leaving too early," Reimu argued back. Remilia only glared at her without saying anything. Both Remilia and Sakuya left Gensokyo earlier than Reimu and the rest as she was excited to go out into the outside world. It was also the fact that she hated the witches that had been terrorizing Gensokyo that she wanted to end the incident as soon as possible.

"Pardon me, but is it necessary to avoid Kyoko and this Kyuubey creature?" Shamal asked.

"We need to avoid Kyuubey as much as possible so that he doesn't know about our presence for the time being, until the time is right. While we need to avoid Kyoko since she still haven't trust us completely. So we'll give her time to think," Patchouli replied.

"Since she still doesn't know about Remilia, Sakuya and Alice yet, I think it's best to avoid her from knowing about our relationship," Reimu suggested.

"Hmm, that's a good idea," Alice said.

"Is Kyuubey a dangerous creature?" Nanoha asked.

"Well, we don't really know since we haven't met him face to face. But there's something odd about him. So we need to investigate about him more," Alice replied.

"Anyway, do you find anything regarding the witches?" Remilia asked Patchouli.

"So far it's hard understand why the witches exist. I need to research more," Patchouli replied.

"Let's finish this so that we can go back," Reimu said with a sigh. "I'm starting to get frustrated that we aren't getting anywhere."

"What're you all discussing about?" Oriko asked as she entered the living room.

"Oh, just random things," Marisa replied. "Mostly about how to avoid from Kyuubey and Kyoko."

"Why we need to avoid miss Kyoko? She look like a good girl to me," Oriko tilted her head.

"Let's just say we need to give her time to think and trust us," Patchouli repeated her answer earlier.

"I see," Oriko said in a sad tone. She was planning on teaming up with Kyoko the next time they meet. But it seems that she no choice but to agree with Patchouli and the other's decision. "Ah by the way, I've finished preparing the bedroom."

"Thank you very much for preparing the bedroom for us," Hayate said with a smile and bowed slightly towards Oriko.

"You're welcome," Oriko replied.

"Let's rest for tonight," said Reimu. She turned towards Nanoha and others. "You all will help Oriko in witch hunt tomorrow so that you'll know how to handle the witches."

"Leave it to us. We'll help miss Oriko with what we can," Arf said with a grin.

"Well, I'm off to my bed. Good night," Marisa waved her hand as she slowly left the living room.

"I guess we'll go to sleep too," Nanoha said. The others nodded and got up from their seat.

"Good night, miss Oriko, miss Reimu, miss Patchouli, miss Alice, miss Remilia and miss Sakuya," Hayate and the rest bowed before they turned around and left the room. While Zafira changed into a large blue wolf and curled his body at the corner of the living room. Remilia looked at Zafira with full of interest. That night, Nanoha could not sleep well. She sat on the bed, staring blankly on the floor. She seemed to be bothered by her thoughts.

"What's wrong? You can't sleep?" A voice asked. Nanoha turned around and saw Signum just entered the room.

"Ah, nothing. It's just that a lot of things happened tonight," Nanoha replied.

"I see. Well, don't think too much. We should get some sleep. We'll be busy tomorrow," Signum said as she lay on her bed. Soon, Nanoha could hear Signum sound asleep. Nanoha also lay back on her bed. Not long after that, she fall asleep.

...

**BOOM!**

Loud explosion made Nanoha woke up instantly. She could felt the mansion was shaking. She immediately got up from her bed and looked around. It seemed that the explosion had also made the others awake. She rushed towards the window near her and looked outside. It was already morning.

"What's that explosion!?" Vita asked.

"I don't know. But there's a lot of smoke outside in the air," Nanoha replied.

"Let's go outside and see," Fate said. Nanoha nodded. They all went outside the room and rushed downstairs. On their way to the door leading outside the mansion, they met Remilia and Sakuya who were just walking out of the dining room.

"Good morning. You all seem busy early in the morning," Remilia greeted them with a smile.

"Miss Remilia, did you heard large explosion in front of the mansion?" Hayate asked.

"Oh, that's just Marisa, Reimu and Patchouli testing out the strength of the barrier," Remilia replied as she went towards the front door. "Care to join in?"

As they went outside the mansion, they saw the three of them were at the middle of the garden. Patchouli was hovering while reading a book. Reimu was sitting on the grass, holding a gohei and some talisman. Marisa was standing while looking at the sky. Nanoha looked at her as if she was a character from folklore stories since she wore a witch hat and holding a broom on her right hand. While her left hand was holding something that looked like a block of wood. The three of them did not notice Nanoha and the other's presence.

"Man, why must I use final spark on the barrier after I used master spark?" Marisa groaned.

"It's to test whether the barrier could withstand your destructive power or not," Patchouli gave an annoying smile.

"Then why not Reimu or Remilia do it?" Marisa asked. "They're more powerful than me. At least Alice should do it."

"Reimu still trying to strengthen the barrier there. Remi is still resting and Alice is busy preparing breakfast with Oriko," Patchouli replied.

"Then again, why we're trying to test the barrier's strength? It's not that something going to destroy it anyway," Marisa said.

"It's for precautions," Reimu said. "We don't know what will happen if something attack us from outside or inside the barrier. Expect the unexpected."

"Don't blame me if the barrier gets destroyed after this," Marisa sighed as she pointed the wooden block that she held upward.

"You don't have to worry. That's why I'm trying to increase the strength of the barrier," Reimu said. Marisa let out another sigh. Nanoha and the others could see the item that Marisa held glowed. Soon they felt the pressure around the area started to get tense.

"Final spark!" Marisa shouted. Large magic circle formed in front of Marisa, releasing high concentration of rainbow coloured beam that shoot off towards the sky and hit something that was invisible to naked eyes. The sheer strength of Marisa's magic was truly strong that it created another large explosion in the air and shook the ground. "Phew, I think I'm done."

"Ah, you're all awake," Patchouli said as she noticed Nanoha and the others. "It seems Marisa's magic woke you up."

"Hey, it's not that I want to use magic early in the morning," Marisa said, crossing her arms on her chest.

"Good morning," Nanoha greeted. "Pardon me, but won't the people around notice the magic that miss Marisa just used?"

"You don't have to worry. The barrier conceals everything that are happening inside. In other words, it prevents outsiders from seeing what we're doing," Reimu said. Nanoha looked at the pedestrian that are walking near the mansion. They seemed did not noticed, saw or hear the magic that Marisa just unleashed. They also seemed did not saw all of them that were gathering at the garden.

"Amazing," Signum widened her eyes.

"It's strength was like Nanoha's starlight breaker," Vita said. "And she only used that small thing on her hand."

"Hmm, interesting," Remilia said as she overheard what Vita had just said. "Hey Reimu, can you let this Nanoha kid try her magic called starlight breaker on the barrier?"

"Eh?" Nanoha was shocked by Remilia's sudden suggestion. She panicked for a moment as she did not know what she should do. She looked at the others, but they also seemed surprised as she was.

"Sure. Can you do it, Nanoha?" Reimu asked.

"B-but it's strength is so strong," Nanoha answered hastily.

"It's okay. We're testing the barrier after all. Don't you worry about your surroundings. I've used defense barrier around us and the mansion," Patchouli replied.

Nanoha hastily took out Raising Heart and immediately changed her clothes into her magical outfit. She did not know whether she should use her starlight breaker or not. She flew into the mid-air and aimed Raising Heart towards the spot where Marisa unleashed her final spark earlier. "Raising Heart, load cartridge and change into buster mode."

[_All right. Load cartridge. Buster mode._]

Raising Heart ejected several cartridges before a magic circle formed under Nanoha. It's head changed shape, forming into a more square shape with two prongs. The pressure around Nanoha started to get tense as Raising Heart charged high amount of mana in front of it and formed a large pink coloured sphere of energy.

"Starlight breaker!" Nanoha shouted, swinging Raising Heart towards the magic circle.

[_Starlight breaker_]

The sphere in front of Raising Heart shoots upward into a large pink beam, hitting something in the air. It created a huge explosion and shook the ground, just like when Marisa used final spark. If it was not for defense barrier that Patchouli had set up, the whole area would had been vaporized. As the starlight breaker dies out, Nanoha did not see anything that she hit aside a lot of smoke formed at the place where it hit's.

"I think the barrier is strong enough now," Reimu said with a large smile on her face.

"Just how strong is the barrier!?" Zafira muttered in a very low voice. "Even starlight beaker couldn't pierce through it."

"Wow! It's like my final spark!" Marisa said. Her eyes were full of excitement. "I bet you study a lot of magic spells to be able to use powerful magic like that."

"I only poured enough mana from me into Raising Heart and it'll do the rest, I don't really need to cast a spell or learn from magic books," Nanoha said with a smile.

"Raising Heart?" Marisa asked.

"It's my staff's name. Every device that each one of us uses had a name," Nanoha replied.

"By the way miss Marisa, what's the item that you held earlier?" Fate asked.

"Ah, just my Hakkero," Marisa said with a smile. She took out the wooden block from her hat and showed it to them. Nanoha looked closely at the item. It took a shape of an octagonal block with eight trigrams printed in a circle on the top of the item.

"How convenient of you to be able to use magic without studying it," suddenly Nanoha and the others heard a voice behind them. They looked behind and saw Alice with her dolls. She looked at them with a serious face.

"Miss Alice, good morning," Shamal greeted. But Alice did not respond for a few second.

"Breakfast is ready. Let's eat before it gets cold," Alice said. Nanoha and the others saw Alice gave them a cold look.

"Is you all right, miss Alice?" Arf asked. "You seemed to be angry."

"I guess she overheard what Nanoha had just said," Reimu said.

"What do you mean?" Hayate asked.

"All of us studied magic from the basic. We read countless books and grimores day and night to improve and increase our magical abilities. That's why someone like Alice who had been doing like that was disappointed when she heard that magicians nowadays used much simpler way to gain magical abilities," Patchouli explained.

"I see," Nanoha said in a sad tone. She felt that she had make Alice sad by saying something that she should not have. Then she turned towards Alice and bowed. "I'm sorry for my attitude earlier, miss Alice. I didn't know that you, miss Reimu and the others had worked so hard to gain magical abilities."

"No need to worry. I know that I'm not supposed to be angry with new generation of magician. It's just my personal reflex. I'm also sorry about earlier," Alice replied with a soft tone. She realized that her attitude had made Nanoha and the others felt uncomfortable. She quickly changed her expression into a smile while patting Nanoha's head. Nanoha smiled a little bit after she heard what Alice had just said.

"Okay, enough with this emotional situation," Marisa said. "Let's have our breakfast. I need to replenish my energy after using master spark and final spark."

All of them nodded. They went inside the mansion and headed straight to the dining hall. Inside, Oriko had just finished placing dishes on the table with the help from several dolls. They immediately sat down and started eating their breakfast.

"Are we going to do witch hunt today?" Oriko asked.

"Yes," Reimu replied. "We also need Nanoha and the others to be familiar with the witches."

"I'll go with them since Remilia, Sakuya and Alice shouldn't show their faces around here," Marisa volunteered.

"Will you be okay, miss Marisa? You just used you magic earlier," Oriko seemed to be concerned with Marisa.

"You don't have to worry about me," Marisa replied with a grin.

"Are we all going to participate too?" Hayate asked.

"You all should participate," Reimu replied. Then she looked at Hayate who was using the wheelchair. "But are you going to participate as well? Because you look like you're not well."

"I'm fine since I can use magic as well," Hayate replied with a smile. "I don't really have problems with my health. Only my legs still need to adapt to walking since I'm still recovering."

"I see," Reimu said. Then they went silent as they continued to eat their breakfast. They could hear birds chirping outside the mansion. Sunlight that came through the window brightened up the dining room.

"Well, let's get going," Marisa said as she finished her breakfast. Oriko nodded and got up from her seat, followed by Nanoha and the others. Zafira and Arf changed into a small puppy so that they could join the witch hunt without attracting other people's attention. They left the mansion and headed directly towards the city. They walked slowly as a group, passing through a lot of people. Oriko was the one leading them while holding her soul gem on her right hand. People did not really concern with Oriko, since they had regard her as a daughter of a corrupted politician.

"Are the witches hiding in the city?" Nanoha asked.

"I don't really know much since I just started out to become magical girls. But usually they tend to hide near the city since there are a lot of people that can be their victim. Especially the one with negative feelings inside their heart," Oriko replied. "That's why I'm trying to scan nearby witches with my soul gem."

"So does your soul gem respond to nearby witches?" Vita asked.

"Something like that," Oriko said. Minutes of endless walk seemed to pay off as her soul gem shine. "There's a witch nearby."

As they continued to walk towards a small alleyway in a very fast pace, Oriko's soul gem glow with more intense. Nanoha and the others looked at each other, preparing to face new unknown enemy.

"It's here," Oriko said as she raised her soul gem. It blinked once before something appeared in front of her that resemble a magic circle but with strange marking. Oriko immediately changed from her normal clothes into magical outfit. "We're going to enter the witch's barrier now."

"I think it's better for you all to change into your magical outfit too. Things will get busy the moment we're inside," Marisa said, looking at Nanoha and the others. They nodded and immediately changed into their battle outfit. Arf and Zafira also changed into their human form.

"We're ready," Nanoha said. After all of them made sure they were prepared, they all went inside the barrier. Nanoha and the others widened their eyes as they witnessed the strange environment around them. They felt like they were in a place where everything seemed to be made up from paper.

"What the heck is this place? Everything seemed like a two dimensional drawings," Shamal said.

"Welcome to the witch's lair," Marisa said. "It does feel weird at first. But you'll get a hang of it."

"Raising Heart, can you take data of the magical energy around?" Nanoha asked.

[_All right, my master_]

"Data?" Marisa looked at Nanoha while tilting her head.

"Yes, I need the data or sample of the witch's magical energy and signature so that I can send it to Arthra for further analysis," Nanoha replied. It did not took long for Raising Heart to complete scanning the magical energy of the witch and it's surrounding.

"They're coming," Oriko said. Their presence was noticed by several witch's familiar around the area. It immediately charged towards Oriko and the rest.

"Are those the witches?" Signum asked as she took a fighting stance.

"No, they're just witch's familiar. In other words, they're just minions," Oriko replied.

She then conjured dozens of spheres in front her and started shooting towards the familiars. Marisa only shoots small projectiles towards the familiars. But she tried her best to minimize her attack so that Nanoha and the others could gain more experience in fighting familiars and witches. Signum, Vita, Arf and Zafira only engaged the familiar in melee combat. They did not want to waste any cartridge since the familiars are quite weak in their view. While Shamal stand by behind Hayate in case the familiars wanted to attack Hayate. Although Hayate was able to use magic, admiral Lindy had adviced her not to strain herself when using too much magic since she had just recovered from the book of darkness incident a year ago.

"Axel shooter. Shoot!" Nanoha shouted. Twelve pink small orbs formed around her and shot towards the familiars. Since it does not disappear immediately after it hit's the familiars, Nanoha found it easier to use it several times simply by controlling it.

"Plasma lancer!" Fate also casted dozens of bolts of yellow energy projectiles in a shape of an arrowhead. It created a zapping sound as it hit's the familiars.

Hayate only continuously casted several projectile towards the familiars. Oriko looked at the three of them and the rest with full of amazement. She had not seen someone could fight the familiars effortlessly like all of them, aside from Reimu and the others. Swarms of familiars continued to attack them as they went further inside the witch's barrier.

"Is it really this hard to find the witch?" Hayate asked.

"Yes, since all the familiars tend to attack anyone who entered the witch's barrier. But we're getting close to the witch," Oriko replied. They stood in front of a weird looking gate after they faced final wave of familiars. As soon as they passed through the gate, they were transferred into a large room filled with pile of boxes. The witch that is in the middle of the room also took the shape of the box. It noticed Oriko and the rest as they arrived at the room. "Look, that's the witch."

"That's the witch? It doesn't look fancy as the name suggest," Vita said.

"I agree with you, kid. I've always thought that it doesn't even look like a witch to me," Marisa said.

"It looks like someone is fighting with it," Hayate said as she pointed her finger. They looked at the silhouette that fought the witch, hopping around to avoid several projectiles. They immediately recognized the person as Kyoko. Kyoko noticed all of them that just arrived and landed near them

"Stay out of this. This one is mine," Kyoko yelled. Then she resumed her fight with the witch, ignoring Oriko and the rest.

"Should we help her?" Hayate asked.

"She told us to stay out of this while she was struggling to defeat it," Vita said.

"Let's help her so that she can finish this quickly," Oriko said.

All of them disperse and approached the witch from all direction. The witch started throwing several boxes available around it. Oriko had a hard time to dodge the incoming box projectiles since she was the only person who did not have the ability to fly. She conjured several spheres and shot it towards the witch. But the witch build a bunker in front of it while it continued to threw boxes at them. Kyoko split her spear into multiple sections, attached with chains. She whips her spear towards the bunker that the witch had built, destroying it little by little. Signum looked at Kyoko and her weapon with full of interest.

"Looks like someone used the same weapon form as you are, Signum," Vita said. "Maybe she could become your junior."

"Levantine, snake form," Signum commanded. Levantine ejected a cartridge before it extended and split itself into a long multiple section. It destroyed every projectile that the witch shot. Kyoko noticed Signum's weapon and could not help herself from feeling awe. That was the first time she saw someone who used similar weapon form as her.

Vita used swallow flier to attack the witch. But barrage of boxes that kept coming towards them started to get intense that the swallow flier hit the projectile instead of the witch. Nanoha and the others used their shield as they barely managed to dodge the incoming projectile. They were amazed at Marisa when they saw her easily avoid, grazed and passed between the projectiles.

"It seems using we cannot hit it with projectiles," Oriko said.

"I thought it was an easy kill," Shamal said.

"Steel yoke!" Zafira casted his magic upon the witch and restricted it's movement.

"Now's our chance," Arf said as she used chain bind to restrict the witch's movement even more. The others nodded and started attacking the witch. This time swallow flier shot by Vita hit the witch. Signum's Laventine reformed back into a sword before it enveloped with flame. She charged towards the witch at high speed and hit it with her sword, creating a high explosion. Hayate, Oriko and Marisa only shot dozens of projectiles. Kyoko continued to attack the witch by herself, ignoring Oriko and the others.

"Divine buster!" Nanoha commanded Raising Heart. She shot off a pink beam towards the witch.

"Haken saber!" Fate swung her Bardiche that are in haken form, releasing a thin mana blade. The witch could not defend itself from the attack since it was restricted by steel yoke and chain bind. It let out a roar before it finally fall onto the floor, admit it's defeat. The witch's barrier started to crumble as it disappeared into thin air. Soon they all found themselves back at the alleyway. They all except Marisa changed back into their normal clothes.

"I didn't expect the witch is quite strong," Hayate said as she let out a big sigh of relief.

"Well, it is a creature with magical attribute and powers," Marisa said. "It makes sense that we couldn't defeat it easily."

"Miss Kyoko?" Oriko noticed that Kyoko stood near them. She ignored Oriko as she picked up the grief seed on the floor. She turned and started walking away from them without saying anything.

"Hey, you don't even say 'thank you' to us for helping you," Vita said. "And we are the one who should have that grief seed."

"I told you earlier to stay out of my way. I didn't even recall that I need your help. Leave this city or I'll make sure you'll be hurt," Kyoko replied as she took out a box of pocky from her pocket, stuffing one of it into her mouth. Then she left Oriko and the others.

"I'm kinda dislike her. She's really arrogant," Arf said.

"She even took the grief seed," Shamal said.

"It can't be helped," Oriko said. "But that's okay."

"Let's go on another witch hunt. We still have time to spare," Marisa said with a grin. The rest nodded in response. They all left the alleyway and went to another place.

...

It was already evening when Oriko and the others are on their way to the mansion. They did not worry about going back in the afternoon since they already had their lunch at a restaurant earlier. The sky had turned orange in colour as the sun sets into the horizon. They had fought dozens of witches with various appearances, shapes and sizes and managed to collect a lot of grief seeds. It was all because Nanoha and the others were strong and the fact that the witches were outnumbered by them.

"Miss Marisa," Nanoha suddenly spoke, catching Marisa's attention who responded with a 'hmm?'. "You seemed to hold back your magic. Why?"

"Let's just say I want you all to be familiar in engaging witches," Marisa replied.

"We saw how you easily passed between the projectiles that the witches shot in every battle earlier. That was amazing," Shamal said.

"Thanks. That was nothing compared to what I've used to experienced," Marisa said.

"Compare to what you've experienced?" Signum repeated Marisa's word and changed it into a question.

"Yeah, I'll show you what I meant by that when we have free time," Marisa said with a grin. Soon they arrived at the mansion. Alice greeted them as they entered the mansion.

"I think we're better get home," Fate said. "We've got school tomorrow."

"Ah, you're right," Nanoha replied.

"You're leaving already?" Oriko asked.

"Yes," Nanoha replied. She bowed slightly towards Oriko, Alice and Marisa. "Thank you for your hospitality."

"How about you, Hayate?" Fate asked. "You still haven't started your school term right?"

"Yes, I'll be start going to school next two months. But I guess I'll be heading back too," Hayate replied.

"You can stay here as long as you like. You don't have to worry," Oriko said with a smile.

"But we don't want to trouble you and the others too much, miss Oriko," Hayate said.

"No, you all aren't a burden at all," Oriko said. "In fact, I'm really happy if you can stay since you don't go to school."

"But didn't you have to go to school, miss Oriko?" Shamal asked.

"I've dropped out from school," Oriko replied after she went silent for a few second. Nanoha and the others understood the reason she left her school life.

"If you insist, then the five of us will stay with you for a while," Hayate said after she thought about Oriko's offer for a few minute. Her answer had made Oriko smiled happily. Seeing Oriko's smile made Hayate felt relieved. She felt pity that Oriko was treated badly by everyone in the city. She had a thought that Oriko was not to blame because of her father's action and should not suffer the consequences. So the least thing that she could do was to enlighten Oriko's feeling and lonesome.

"Well, we'll be leaving now," Arf said. She, Fate and Nanoha bowed slightly at the others before Arf casted a dimensional transfer spell. Soon they disappeared into thin air.

"Are they using a teleportation spell?" Patchouli who was just arrived at the front of the mansion's door asked.

"Yes they are," Vita replied, looking at Patchouli.

"Convenient," Patchouli muttered with a smile before she floated away from them and went into a study room that Oriko had at her mansion. The rest looked at her with question in their mind about what she meant by what she had just said.

"Let's get some rest. There's still time before dinner," Marisa said, putting her hands behind her head as she started walking. Oriko, Hayate and the rest followed Marisa from behind.

"Umm... Miss Marisa," Oriko suddenly spoke.

"Yes, what is it?" Marisa looked at Oriko. Oriko kept quiet for a few second. It seemed that she was hesitated to say anything that she had in mind.

"I have a request," Oriko finally said.

* * *

**At Arthra:**

"Admiral, Nanoha and the others had sent us some data about witches," Chrono said.

"Ah, I see," Lindy replied. Her mind was concentrated on several letter on her desk.

"Another letter?" Amy asked.

"Yes, this letter kept coming and everything was according this the plan that was stated in it," Lindy said as she slumped on her chair.

"Let's just hope that it doesn't lead us to something miserable," Chrono said.

"I agree."

_To be continued..._

* * *

**Afterword**:

Greetings.

Well, chapter 5 is finally out. I published this chapter early today since I'll be busy later on. Things started to get tense as the story goes on. I want to thank you for the reviews that I've received so far. I've appreciate each and every review being made, including ideas that were given to me through it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Conflict**

The sun was rising at Mitakihara city as the people who lived there were getting ready for their long and tired day. Some of them passed by Oriko's mansion, but they did not bother to care about it even for a bit. Instead they felt hatred deep inside their heart towards the Mikuni family ever since they found out that Oriko's father, Mikuni Hisaomi, was a corrupted politician. They assumed that the mansion was already empty since lately they did not saw Oriko coming out from the mansion. But the truth was that they could not see or hear anything beyond the mansion's gate unless if they passed through it.

Mikuni Oriko was panting and sweating heavily as she stood at the middle of the mansion's garden. She was in her magical girl outfit, conjuring countless spheres around her while looking at someone who was floating in the mid air. The person was wearing a dark blue maid outfit with an apron and held a knife on her left hand. Her grey eyes matched her silver hair perfectly. Oriko was hesitated to shoot her sphere towards the person because every effort that she made was in vain.

"I can see you're still hesitating to attack," the person who appeared to be Sakuya said. "If you don't try and attack me again, I suppose I'll attack you then."

"Shoot!" Oriko shouted. She launched the spheres that she conjured earlier towards Sakuya, trying to avoid Sakuya from throwing her knife. Sakuya effortlessly dodged the incoming projectiles.

"Your attack still has a lot of opening. You need to increase your projectiles," Sakuya said with a small smile.

"Yes, miss Sakuya," Oriko replied. She tried to increase the amount of spheres that she could conjure. She felt that she was at her limit. She glanced at her soul gem that was getting darker because she had not cleansed it since yesterday. But she did not want to give up just yet. She released her spheres again towards Sakuya. But once again Sakuya dodged and grazed between the projectiles. Oriko fell on her knee as she panted, trying to recover her energy. She could try to conjure some spheres but it seemed Sakuya was going to attack her since she had lifted her arm, ready to throw her knife.

"Here I come," Sakuya said as she threw the knife that she held which suddenly multiplied into countless knives and flew towards Oriko.

"Star Diamond Reflection!" Oriko conjured five small white star shaped diamonds in front of her before it merged and created a large star shaped barrier. Since she could not dodge the knives in front of her, the only thing that she could do at that moment was to set up a defense barrier. Oriko had tried to develop her magical abilities for the past two days. Since Marisa was the one who helped Oriko for the first time, she had recommended a star shaped barrier. While it was Hayate who excitedly named the new technique that Oriko had leant. Naming the technique had helped Oriko in remembering and imagining how the spell works.

The knives knocked and bounced off as it hits Oriko's barrier. But she could not hold off her barrier for too long since conjuring spheres earlier had drained out most of her energy. Oriko's eyes widened as she saw her barrier finally cracked and shattered into pieces, knocking her to the ground. She struggled as she tried to get up, but it seemed she did not have energy to move anymore. Sakuya smiled as she slowly decended from the air.

"I lost," Oriko finally admit defeat. She smiled back at Sakuya as she changed back from her magical girl outfit into her normal clothes. Sakuya approached and helped her standing up.

"You did well for a beginner," Remilia said as she appoached the two of them. It seemed she was satisfied that her maid won against Oriko. Sakuya only bowed at Remilia without saying anything.

"Thank you," Oriko said.

Oriko had been conducting her training session every morning for the past two days. She could not complain since she was the one who requested to be trained to use her magic efficiently and effectively by Reimu and the others. On the first day, she had to face Alice and her dolls. Oriko had no problem in dodging Alice's projectiles and dolls. But she had a hard time engaging an attack since Alice used her dolls to defend herself and distracting Oriko from conjuring spheres. Marisa who was in charge of training Oriko on the second day only focused on shooting star shaped projectiles. That morning, Oriko had to face Sakuya since Remilia ordered her to participate. While Alice and Marisa went a little bit easy on her, Sakuya on the other hand was the opposite.

"Amazing," Shamal widened her eyes. "No matter how I look at it, the fight was amazing."

Shamal and the others were sitting on the balcony, watching at the battle between Oriko and Sakuya. Their eyes were full of amazement as they saw the amazing stunt that Alice, Marisa and Sakuya had pulled since the first day of Oriko's training. Only Nanoha and Fate could not manage to watch the training because the two of them had to go to school. They could only watch the training from a video that was recorded by Signum. While it was normal for someone to use a magic shield to defend, but they saw that Marisa and the other two only dodged and grazed between countless sphere projectiles that Oriko shot without using any shield.

"Is it normal for you all to be able to dodge countless projectiles that easily? Did you always have a duel like this?" Signum asked Marisa who was sitting beside her.

"Yeah," Marisa replied.

"The only problem is that the projectiles aren't lethal," Vita said.

"Though it wasn't lethal, it still hurts if you were knocked by it," Patchouli said.

"We can make it lethal," Reimu said as she sipped her tea. "It's just that I don't want people to kill each other."

"The only thing Oriko was lacking right now is she couldn't control her spheres and change it into homing projectiles. Maybe we can teach her that later," Vita said.

"That's a great idea," Marisa said with a grin. "Can we count on you guys to help her with that?"

"We'll try."

"Another problem is that she couldn't fly," Signum said.

"Yeah, I wonder if we can help her with that," Reimu said.

"Everyone, breakfast is ready," they heard Hayate's voice calling to them from inside the mansion. That morning Hayate had helped Alice in preparing breakfast since Oriko was busy training. She insisted in helping since she did not want the five of them to be the freeloader at the mansion.

"We're coming," Shamal replied back at Hayate. All of them went inside the mansion, including Oriko and Sakuya who were just finished their training. As usual they enjoyed the breakfast that are being prepared as soon as they sat around the dining table.

"By the way," Patchouli suddenly spoke, letting out a small cough. Everyone in the dining room looked at her. "After this, I want to discuss something with you all. I hope everyone will come to the study room."

"Is it something important?" Remilia asked.

"Yes, at least to me," Patchouli replied. As soon as they finished their breakfast, all of them immediately went towards the study room. Inside, large and long table was being placed in the middle of the room. The bookshelves are mostly filled with books about politics. Since that was the first time Hayate and the others went in, they saw the study room was filled with papers and books lying on the floor and on the table. It was a spacious but rather messy room. It seemed to them that Patchouli had been studying and researching a lot. There were also books floating around the room. Marisa took every book that floated near her and flipped to look the content inside.

"Hey, aren't these books yours?" Marisa asked Patchouli. "How did you even manage to bring all of these?"

"Yukari brought them over for me and Koakuma helped her gathering all of my books. It's hard for me to find reference here at the outside world since magic is uncommon here," Patchouli replied. Hayate tilted her head as she heard what Patchouli had just said.

_Yukari? Koakuma? Outside world?_ Hayate thought. She wanted to ask what Patchouli meant by those, but she did not dare to interrupt their conversation.

"So, any new information about the witches and magical girls?" Alice asked.

"Sadly, there's none," Patchouli replied. "That's why I want to talk to you all about it. According to the information that we were given four days ago, we have three weeks before the time will be reversed. Now we've only got less than three weeks and so far I can't get enough information regarding it."

"What about the soul gem and the grief seeds?" Shamal asked. "I think there's a connection between the two of it and the witches. I mean, I don't see the reason magical girls need to use the grief seeds to restore their soul gem and their magical powers since usually magical energy will replenish by itself."

"Maybe they want to avoid the witches from being revived back," Hayate tried to make a theory. She recalled back when Oriko once used a grief seed that it revived back the witch that they had defeated. Patchouli glanced at Shamal, Hayate and the rest before letting out a small cough.

"It's hard for me to explain about it for now. I need to verify the matter," Patchouli replied. Several grief seeds that she kept floated towards her. Each grief seed were confined inside a crystal. "I've tried several experiments and I still haven't found a good result."

"How about you all?" Oriko asked, looking at Hayate. "Did you find any clue regarding the culprit of your time distortion problem?"

"We also found nothing," Hayate replied, shaking her head.

"So, what should we do now?" Reimu asked with a big sigh. "We're not getting anywhere."

"I suggest we'll go and spy on Kyuubey or we 'accidentally' meet him to gain information," Remilia suddenly spoke. Her suggestion surprised everyone in the room.

"Wait a minute! You want us to reveal ourselves!? Didn't we planned to hide our presence?" Marisa asked.

"We seemed to have little choice now. As Pache said, we've run out of time and the situation has to be changed now. We need to take a step to move forward although we know it's risky. But believe me... It won't be risky as we thought."

"No way! I'm not gonna take the risk! We don't know what will happen if we're going to spy or meet him," Marisa argued.

"Then who's gonna spy or meet him? How are we going to find him?" Signum asked. They all looked at Oriko, who seemed surprised in response.

"Ermm... If you all want to ask me about how to meet Kyuubey, I don't know myself," Oriko explained. "He just popped out of nowhere and offered me to make a wish before."

"Maybe we can ask someone like miss Kyoko about witches since I felt that she was knowledgeable," Reimu suggested.

"That's a great idea," Oriko clapsed her hands.

"I wouldn't want to involve with her. She's too arrogant. Not to mention she thought that the witches in the other city are only for her," Vita said. She recalled back what happened four days ago when they met Kyoko. She had threatened them to leave the city since it was her territory or she would hurt Oriko.

"But if we want her to understand us, we need to talk to her. I'm sure sooner or later she'll be nice to us," Hayate said with a smile. Reimu was quite amazed at how optimistic Hayate was, no matter how bad the situations were. She had not seen Hayate got angry or frowned even once ever since she and the wolkenritter stayed at Oriko's mansion.

"Miss Hayate's right. I know it's hard for us to make her understand us, but I think if we try to understand her, then maybe she'll help us," Reimu said.

"Well, that's another way to take the risk," Patchouli said. "But I think it'll be better if we conceal our magic if we are to spy or meet Kyuubey."

"But wouldn't miss Kyoko met Kyuubey by chance now and told him all about us?" Alice asked.

"Hmm, that's a good point since it's likely that she may be frequently in contact with Kyuubey," Shamal said.

All of them went silent as their discussions did not have any resolve and going towards a dead end. Patchouli was flipping through some books and notes that she wrote about grief seeds, witches, magical girls and Kyuubey. Remilia only continued to sip her tea while closing her eyes. Alice's doll hovered around, carrying a teapot to refill any empty teacup. Reimu let out few sighs as her mind was totally empty. The rest tried their best to come up with some plan and suggestion. But it seemed that they were also out of idea. The only plans that they had to take at the moment were either spy or met Kyuubey by 'accident' or ask Kyoko about witches and bring them to meet Kyuubey.

"I think I'm going to the store to buy some foods and stuff," Oriko said as she finally got up from her seat and looked at the clock on the wall. It was about two hours before noon. Reimu also stood and followed Oriko as she also wanted to go outside since she had been confining herself in the mansion for four days in a row.

"Can Shamal and I come too?" Hayate asked. "I think we can help you in finding and buying groceries."

Oriko nodded with a smile. Since the people in the city had shown disrespect, dispute and hatred towards Oriko, she had to wear a T-shirt, a jean and a cap so that no one would recognize her. While Reimu wore a simple white dress since she would attract people's attention if she wore her miko outfit. Hayate and Shamal did not worry about clothes since they had brought theirs from their home. The four of them left the mansion and took a train to Kizamino city. As soon as they went out of the train, they immediately went towards the centre of the city. The weather was quite hot that morning that Reimu and the others were sweating all over their body. Since the azure sky was devoid of clouds, they could feel their skin was heating up by the sunlight. Even the wind that blew throughout the city was warm and dry. They headed towards a huge supermarket that Oriko always went since it provides a very decent price for anything that were sold there. They took anything that they found necessary to stock in their food supplies.

After they done buying some groceries, Oriko brought the three of them to a cloth shop to buy some clothes for Reimu and the others to wear when they go outside. Although Reimu preferred to wear her miko outfit, but she could not bear to watch Oriko feel sad if she rejected her offer. Moreover, she did not want to burden Oriko by borrowing her clothes. Ever since Oriko met Reimu, Nanoha and the others, Reimu could saw that she was very happy. The first time she met her, she could only feel sorrow and grief inside Oriko as if she looked at them with an empty eyes. As lunch time comes around, they immediately went to the restaurant to fill up their empty stomach. Oriko did not have any problems with money since her father had left her with fortunes that were kept in secret.

"We sure bought a lot today," Oriko said while humming happily as they left the restaurant. She felt that was her first time to go out with someone that she could regard as friends in a long time.

"Yeah," Hayate said with a smile. Then she took a peek inside a shopping bag that she held. "You even bought for us some clothes, including for Nanoha, Fate and Arf. We're sorry for causing you such trouble."

"It's okay. After all, I'm happy that I can buy something for you all."

"I'm glad we're coming along with you or else it'll be hard for you two to carry all the items we've bought," Shamal said.

"Yeah, thank you for helping us," Oriko said. She noticed that Reimu had not spoken ever since they left the restaurant. "Miss Reimu, is something wrong?"

"Someone's following us," Reimu replied. Oriko seemed surprised and tried to look at her surroundings. But Reimu quickly grabbed and stopped her because haste and suspicious movement like that would be noticed by the person who followed them. Hayate and Shamal only kept calm while their eyes observed everything around them. But they did not saw anyone suspicious.

"What should we do?" Hayate asked.

"We can go to some isolated area and quickly use dimensional transfer," Shamal suggested. Reimu, Oriko and Hayate nodded in agreement. They moved quickly towards the alleyway, away from the crowd. But before Shamal could do anything, a spear was being thrown toward Oriko from above. Oriko barely managed to dodge the spear. They immediately knew the owner of the spear as they recognized its shape and colour.

"I didn't expect you to be able to dodge my spear," a voice said as the person slowly jumped down the building. They looked at the person who was Sakura Kyoko in her magical girl outfit.

"Miss Kyoko," Oriko widened her eyes as she was still shocked from the attack earlier. She knew that Kyoko had threatened to hurt her before. But Oriko did not expect that she was serious about it. Suddenly, something that looked like a chain formed around them. Only that it was diamond in shape and its colour was red and black. Reimu looked to her left, right and above. It seemed the chain had blocked their entire possible escape path.

"Didn't I tell you that this city is my territory and I want you all to leave? I remember I said that I will hurt you if you continue to hunt witches here. You all even killed familiars," Kyoko said, conjuring another spear on her hand. "It seems you all are very stubborn. Oh, don't worry about escaping from here. I've already set up a barrier. Now we can have some fun."

"Familiars?" Reimu asked.

"Familiars didn't drop grief seeds if you defeated it. So you should let it kill people before it evolved into a witch. I'm not going to tell you more than that since I want to take you down right here," Kyoko replied. Reimu gritted her teeth in annoyance when she heard Kyoko said something like that. She felt Kyoko was very selfish to let someone be killed by something that she refered to as a familiar to let it evolve into a witch.

"Miss Kyoko, can we discuss things properly?" Hayate asked. Instead of replying to Hayate's question, Kyoko detached her spear into several segments and lashed it towards Oriko.

"Star Diamond Reflection!" Oriko quickly changed into her magical girl outfit and conjured the star shaped defense barrier to deflect Kyoko's attack. Since she had already cleanse her soul gem, her barrier was stronger than the one that she conjured earlier in the morning.

"Are you a kid or something? You even give name to your technique," Kyoko said with a smirk as she continued to lash her detached spear towards Oriko. Oriko on the other hand only defend the attack without countering back. Kyoko continued to rebuke her as she saw her action. "What's wrong? Are you too afraid to attack?"

Oriko only ignored Kyoko's insult. In her mind, she wanted to talk and discuss peacefully with Kyoko. But it was impossible since Kyoko did not stop her assault. Reimu wanted to do something to stop Kyoko. But Oriko shooked her head as she looked at Reimu, indicating that she did not want her to do anything. Suddenly, several binds formed and wrapped around Kyoko's body, restricting her movement. Kyoko cursed under her breath as she looked at Reimu and the others.

"Grr! Darn it! Release me at once! Fight me fair and square, you cowards!" Kyoko yelled as she could not hold her anger anymore. She struggled to break free from the bind although she knew her effort was futile.

"Miss Shamal, prepare to use your teleportation magic," Reimu said. Shamal only nodded. As soon as she dispels the bind, Kyoko reattached her spear before she tried to dash in as fast as she could. But she did not managed to land an attack as Reimu and the others disappeared into the thin air. She looked around but found no trace of them.

"Darn it!" Kyoko yelled into the air.

...

"I'm glad we made it back safely," Hayate said as the four of them arrived at the mansion's garden. She felt relieved after she made sure they were unharmed and the items they bought were undamaged.

"We're home," Reimu said as they entered the mansion.

"Welcome back," Marisa who was sitting on a chair near the front door with Signum greeted them. They were flipping through some books. The yellow-brownish colour of the paper of the books indicates that the book was very old.

"What are you two reading?" Hayate asked.

"Some magic books and grimores that we've borrowed from miss Patchouli," Signum replied. "So how did it go?"

"Well, we've bought a lot of goods," Shamal said. "And miss Oriko bought new clothes for all of us too."

"Wow! Thank you Oriko!" Marisa said with a smile as she peeked at one of the shopping bags that were full of clothes. Then she noticed Oriko only kept silent without responding. She was looking down ever since they entered the mansion. Marisa waved her hand in front of Oriko's face, trying to gain her attention.

"Huh?" Oriko seemed startled as she snapped back into the reality. Then she looked at Reimu, Hayate, Shamal and Marisa before she curved a small smile. "I-is there something wrong?"

"I'm the one who should be asking that. Are you okay? You seemed pale," Marisa looked at Oriko, tilting her head.

"I-I'm okay," Oriko replied hastily. She quickly loosens her shoes and went passed Marisa and the other four before she turned her head at them. "I just need a little rest, that's all."

Marisa only looked at Oriko who slowly walked away from them, disappeared into the main hall. Reimu, Hayate and Shamal only exchanged looks.

"What happened?" Signum asked as she turned towards Shamal.

"Something happened to us just a while ago," Shamal replied.

...

Oriko was sitting on her bed, staring blankly at her soul gem. Afternoon sunlight that penetrated through the window's curtain brightened up her bedroom. But her heart was not as bright as the sun that shone. Her mind was disturbed by thoughts that came and went one after another. After Kyoko had shown hostility towards her, she felt that her hope started to shatter and her dream world started to crumble. Her tears started to swell as her mind kept rewinding and playing her bad memories, but she managed to hold if off as she heard a knock on the door. She slowly went to open the door and saw Marisa stood in front of her with a smile, followed by Hayate and Signum.

"Can we come in?" Marisa asked. Oriko only nodded without saying a word. She sat back at her bed while Marisa and Hayate sat on a chair opposite of Oriko. Signum only leaned against the wall near the window. Oriko continued to look at her soul gem without looking up. Marisa also stared at Oriko's soul gem that started to become dimmed and tainted after the fight before she finally scratched the back of her head as she started to get uncomfortable of the awkward atmosphere. Usually Oriko would at least tell or ask something at her.

"Say..." Oriko finally spoke, gaining their attention. "I felt it's useless for me to continue living."

"What makes you said that?" Hayate asked. She was a little bit surprised to hear Oriko said something like that.

"Everyone hates me. Even miss Kyoko tried to hurt me," Oriko replied.

"Aww, don't say something like that," Marisa said. "Not everyone hates you. You still have us here as your friends."

"But... You all will be leaving after you solved your problems right?" Oriko asked a question which the question itself was the answer. Marisa was speechless as she could not think something to cheer Oriko up. She knew that Oriko was right about what she had just said. After they solved the incident they will be heading back to Gensokyo.

Nanoha and the others might also leave Mitakihara city if they caught the culprit of the problem they faced. If that happens, Oriko will be left all alone once again to face the harsh reality. That may be the reason Oriko wanted to befriend Kyoko. But now it seemed impossible for Oriko. Marisa hugged Oriko firmly for a few second before she let go although she knew Oriko was older than her and might dislike her action. But she felt it was the right thing to do to cheer her up. Hayate looked at Signum and nodded.

"It's just like you said. We may be leaving this city as soon as we solved our problem," Signum said.

"I see," Oriko said. She went silent once again as she looked at her soul gem.

"Miss Oriko, don't say that everyone hates you, " Hayate said as she touched Oriko's hand gently. "If there's someone who hates you, there will be someone who will care for you. I know that you're sad that miss Kyoko still showed her hostility towards you to the extent of hurting you. But I believe that if you'd do anything and everything, she'll understand you eventually."

Oriko widened her eyes as Hayate's word made her realized her childish and immature thoughts compared to Hayate. She thought that Hayate must had been experiencing something that led her to become a mature person at such a young age. She felt that her clouded mind slowly vanished and her burden had been lifted up. Hope started to appear back in her heart after she heard Hayate's words. Her selfish thoughts had made Marisa, Hayate and Signum concerned about her. Maybe Reimu and the rest also felt the same if they were to hear what Oriko had just said earlier.

"Miss Oriko, you mentioned that you had your wish granted before right? May we know what your wish was?" Signum asked.

"I... wish to know the purpose and meaning of my life," Oriko replied.

"I see," Signum said with a nod. "If you wished for that, then seek for it. I know it'll be hard at first and you'll be facing a lot of trials. But believe me... Even if you couldn't find the purpose or the meaning of your life right now, but if you're patient enough I'm sure you'll be able to find the answer eventually."

"Thank... you... for the encouragement... I don't know what to say anymore," Oriko said as she tried to curve a small smile. Her tears slowly rolled down her cheeks before she wiped it out. Marisa, Hayate and Signum only nodded and returned the smile.

"By the way, your soul gem is getting duller and tainted than when I saw earlier. You'd better cleanse it," Marisa said, pointing her finger at Oriko's soul gem.

"That's strange. I've already cleansed my soul gem this morning," Oriko said as she just noticed the sudden change in her soul gem. Her mind was disturbed by her thoughts that she did not observed completely the condition of her soul gem.

"Maybe you've used it too much earlier during Kyoko's assault," Signum stated her opinion.

"But I remember I only used a barrier," Oriko said, putting her hand under her chin as she tried so hard to remember whether she used her magic excessively or not.

"I agree. I didn't saw miss Oriko conjured any spheres at all," Hayate clarified Oriko's statement.

"That's weird," Marisa scratched her head. "I'll ask Patchouli about this later. Maybe she know something about it."

"Okay," Oriko said.

"Let's go and make a dinner," Hayate said with a smile, trying to cheer Oriko up. Oriko nodded and tried to smile back in response before she stood up.

...

"Hey, are you sure about this?" Reimu asked as she and the rest were gathering inside the mansion's study room that afternoon, discussing about a magic that Patchouli had just developed.

"I'm positive," Patchouli replied.

"But wouldn't it be better if you guys use our magic?" Zafira asked.

"It'll be convenient for us to have this magic just in case you and your friends aren't around us," Patchouli said.

"I see."

"Ah, here you all are," Marisa said as she, Oriko, Hayate and Signum entered the study room. "We've been searching for you guys. What're you doing?"

"Miss Patchouli was trying to do an experiment on her newly developed magic," Shamal replied.

"Newly developed magic?" Hayate asked.

"It's just a teleportation magic though which I've crafted it into a spell card... Nothing fancy," Patchouli said.

"But why do we need the teleportation magic?" Marisa asked.

"For convenient."

"So that's what you meant by 'convenient' before," Oriko said. Patchouli just nodded without further explanation.

"So, who will try the magic first?" Remilia asked.

"I'll try," Alice answered. Patchouli nodded and and gave Alice some of the teleportation spell card. Alice stood and walked away from the rest towards the edge of the study room before she turned around to look at them. Reimu and the others watched the card began to glow faintly as Alice held the spell card above her.

"Spell card! Transfer!" Alice shouted. White light warped around Alice before she disappeared into small light particles.

"Does it work?" Signum asked.

"Yes it does," Patchouli replied with a smile.

"Wait! Where did she teleported to?" Marisa asked.

"Who knows," Patchouli replied with a smile. Then she took out something from her sleeve. "Well since all of us had this convenient item called a cell phone, let's just wait for the result from her when she email or call us."

...

Alice opened her eyes as soon as the bright white light around her fades away. She slowly looked and observed the area around her. She somehow arrived at a lawn filled with various flowers on a rooftop of a building. No one was at that place beside her. Alice noticed a door near her and immediately opened it. It leads to some stairs that went downwards. As she walked down the stairs, it led her to another door. Alice opened the door and saw a lot of people in front of her, walking through a corridor. All of them stopped and stared at her with a curious look since Alice still wore her usual dress. It seemed to them that Alice was a foreigner, judging by her appearance. Alice looked at the people around her. Some of them used a wheelchair. There are also people with some bandages on parts of their body. She assumed that she was at a hospital.

_Oh, I forgot to change my clothes. More importantly, why did I teleported here?_ Alice thought. She shrugged her thoughts as she began to start walking, ignoring all the people although their gaze made her uncomfortable. Alice tried to find an exit, but instead she ended up walking endlessly in the maze of corridor and hallway. She sighed heavily as she started to get tired walking around.

"Excuse me miss," Alice could hear a voice behind her. She turned around and saw a teenage girl with short blue hair. She was wearing a school uniform and carrying a school bag behind her back. Alice observed her before the girl spoke again, "Um... Can I help you, miss? You seemed to have some kind of trouble."

"Well, I'm trying to find the exit but I'm kinda lost in this big hospital," Alice said. "Could you show me the way?"

"Sure," the girl replied with a smile. "But pardon me. I was wondering why you didn't ask the people around you earlier if you're lost."

"I'm a little bit uncomfortable to be around the crowds here since they stared at me too much," Alice said. The girl only nodded although she felt that the answer did not match her question.

"Ah, I see. Well, I think they felt weird to see a foreigner in this hospital," the girl said while looking at Alice's appearance. "By the way, I'm Miki Sayaka."

"I'm Alice Margatroid," Alice introduced herself before she bowed. She then remembered that Remilia had once mentioned someone named Miki Sayaka that she met at nearby city. She guessed that she was still at Mitakihara city at that moment.

_Is this a coincidence? No... This is more than a mere coincidence_, Alice thought as the two of them started walking. They entered an elevator and descended straight towards the ground floor. As soon as they got out of the elevator, Sayaka immediately approached a girl who was sitting on a bench nearby. She had a pink hair tied into a twintail and wore the same uniform as Sayaka. But what attracted Alice's attention was a white creature that sat beside the girl. At first glance, the creature seemed to be a white cat. But as Alice looked carefully, it seemed a little bit different since it had something like a long pair of ears with rings.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Sayaka said with a sigh.

"What's wrong? You didn't get to see Kamijou?" The girl asked.

"He seemed isn't doing very well today," Sayaka replied. She let out another sigh.

"Ah I see. By the way Sayaka, the lady behind you..." The girl pointed her finger towards Alice who stood behind Sayaka. Alice immediately bowed slightly towards the girl.

"Ah, her name is Alice Margatroid. She lost her way when I met her upstairs," Sayaka replied.

"Nice to meet you, miss Alice. I'm Kaname Madoka," the girl introduced herself. "Pardon me, but have we meet before?"

"I think we haven't," Alice replied. "Why?"

"I don't know. But I felt that I've saw you before," Madoka said. Suddenly her mind unconsciously recalled the dreams that she kept having recently. She saw in her dreams several girls that she had not met before. But since the dream was vague, she could not see their face clearly. But Madoka had the feeling that one of the girls in her dream was Alice. Madoka then noticed that Alice had been staring at her as she snapped back from her daydream. "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just that you had a cute pet," Alice said as she pointed her finger at the white creature that was now leaning on Madoka's shoulder.

"Eh!? You can see Kyuubey!?" Sayaka seemed startled but she managed to keep her voice low so that she would not attract other people's attention. Alice widened her eyes when she heard the creature's name was Kyuubey.

"What do you mean?"

"Well... Not anyone can see him. You can say that only someone with magical potential and are chosen by Kyuubey could see him," Madoka explained.

"I see," Alice said.

"Nice to meet you, miss Alice. I'm Kyuubey. I can grant people's wish and make miracles happen, no matter what," Alice was unfazed seeing Kyuubey being able to communicate with her telepathically while keeping his 'smiling' cat face expression. She guessed that it was to avoid from the person who were able to see him 'talking alone'. But she pretended to be surprised when she heard Kyuubey talked.

"So you can grant people's wish?" Alice asked.

"Yes but it is only limited to one wish only and in return for the wish that they've made, they must fight a creature known as a witch," Kyuubey replied. "And since you can see me, I think you have a potential to become a magical girl. Make a contract with me and I will offer you to make a wish so that I can grant it."

"I think I'll pass. I don't have anything worth wishing for," Alice said as she put her hand under her chin. She tried to act normally so that she would not become someone suspicious. She then noticed something in Kyuubey's words just now and thought, _So... He used some sweet talk to persuade any girls that come in contact with him to make a wish and become a magical girl without giving further explanation_.

"Ah, I see. But if you ever had something that you're wishing for, I suppose you can let me know," Kyuubey said. Alice only nodded without saying anything.

"Well, let's lead miss Alice the way out and go home," Madoka said with a smile. The four of them walked out of the hospital and went pass through a bicycle parking lot before Madoka suddenly stopped and looked at the wall. Sayaka and Alice also stopped and turned around, looking at Madoka.

"Madoka, what's wrong?" Sayaka asked.

"Umm... Isn't that..." Madoka trailed off as she pointed her finger at something at the wall. Sayaka and Alice looked at the direction that Madoka pointed and saw a grief seed pinned on the wall, glowing faintly.

"It's a grief seed! The witch inside it nearly hatched!" Kyuubey said. "Let's avoid this place or we'll be trapped inside the witch's barrier."

"Why is it here of all places!?" Sayaka let out a small growl. In her mind, if the grief seed hatched and release the barrier then a lot of people will accidentally enter it. She then turned towards Madoka and asked, "Madoka, do you have Mami's phone number?"

"No," Madoka replied.

"You go and find Mami. I'll stay here and keep an eye on the grief seed," Sayaka said.

"I'll stay here with Sayaka just in case," Kyuubey said.

"Okay," Madoka said. She looked at Alice who pretended to be confused on the situation. "Miss Alice, I'll lead you to the main entrance."

"Is something going to happen?" Alice asked.

"The creature called a witch that Kyuubey mentioned earlier is going to appear," Madoka said. "We need to get out of here."

"But what about miss Sayaka?"

"I'll be fine," Sayaka answered. Alice nodded and followed Madoka.

"Here we are. I hope we'll see each other again soon. Goodbye and have a nice day," Madoka said as they arrived at the main entrance. She bowed towards Alice before she turned around and walked away. Alice only watched Madoka disappeared at the corner of the street before she started walking.

...

"Do we have time before the seed hatch?" Sayaka asked Kyuubey.

"I don't know. But it seems it won't be long," Kyuubey replied.

"I see," Sayaka clenched her hands. She thought that Mami and Madoka would not be able to arrive at short time. She hoped that she would not be in trouble if she was trapped inside the barrier alone.

"I think you'll need a company," Sayaka was startled as she heard Alice's voice.

"Miss Alice!? What're you doing here? I thought you're already left with Madoka," Sayaka asked.

"I am," Alice replied with a smile. "But I came back here because I'm worry about you."

"Please stay back. I don't want anything happ-..." Sayaka could not finish her sentence as the grief seed flashed with bright white light before the environment around the three of them gradually changed. Soon they found themselves inside the witch's barrier.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Sadness**

The azure sky gradually turned dark as Alice, Sayaka and Kyuubey got absorbed into the witch's barrier. Few seconds before, they were at the hospital near the bicycle parking lot. But now the area around them was filled with various sizes of candies, donuts and other sweet foods. They could also see large size syringe, needles, medicine bottles and pills.

"Hey, what's this place?" Alice asked as she looked at Sayaka who seemed worried. Since she had to keep her identity and her magic a secret, she had to pretend that she did not know anything about witches and magical girls.

"It's a witch's barrier. We're trapped inside it," Sayaka replied.

"So does that means we can't escape?"

"Yeah. Now we're gonna have to wait for Madoka and our senior to arrive here and defeat the witch. I don't know if you're willing to believe me or not, but our senior is a magical girl."

"I see. I'll believe you since I just saw this place that we're in right now with my own eyes," Alice said. If she could recall her memories correctly, Remilia had also mentioned names like Tomoe Mami and Akemi Homura. Since she had seen Homura before, she assumed that the senior that Sayaka meant was Tomoe Mami.

"One of you can defeat the witch if you want to," Kyuubey suddenly interrupted. "Just make a wish and make a contract with me."

Alice ignored him as she started walking around the barrier after she carefully observed her surroundings. Sayaka only followed behind her with a worried expression while hugging Kyuubey. She knew that she was the one who chose to stay behind and kept her eyes on the grief seed. But now she was unsure if she was brave enough to wander inside the barrier.

"W-wait miss Alice. We shouldn't wander off too far," Sayaka said.

"It's okay," Alice said with a smile. "After all, I'm quite curious about this witch that you three were talking about."

"Are you scared, Sayaka?" Kyuubey asked.

"Well, yeah... I'm definitely feeling scared right now," Sayaka replied as she looked around.

"If you make a wish right now, I can turn you into a magical girl," Kyuubey said.

"I will if there's an emergency but right now I can't do that. I don't want to make a haste wish since it's a very important decision for me," Sayaka said after she went quiet, thinking about what Kyuubey had just said. "I wanna try to take it seriously."

Alice started to get annoyed when Kyuubey repeated his suggestion on trying to get them to make a contract and become a magical girl. At the same time, she curved a small smile when she heard Sayaka's answer. In her mind, Sayaka had made a wise decision. As they went deeper inside the barrier, they could see few familiars that looked like a ball with one eye and a nurse lurking around. They stopped and stepped back as the familiars walked near them. But the familiars did not bother to attack them.

"Is that a witch?" Alice asked after the familiars disappeared from their sight.

"Nope, that's just a witch's familiars. Their duty is to protect the witch and the barrier," Sayaka replied.

"But they only ignored us," Alice said.

"Yeah, I'm also wondering about that," Sayaka said while scratching her head. "Usually it would attack us the moment we entered the barrier."

"As long as we don't make much noise, the familiars won't realize we're here," Kyuubey said.

"I see."

"Kyuubey, which way we should go?" Sayaka asked. Kyuubey showed them the direction that could lead them towards the witch. Since the barrier was full of mazes, Alice assumed that one could easily lose their way the moment they walked inside it. Since Kyuubey was with them, they did not have any problem walking through the mazes without making any mistakes. Soon they arrived inside a small room with a lot of holes on the wall.

"There, that's where the witch are," Kyuubey said, pointing his paw at one of the hole that looked like a small window with a grey steel grill. Alice and Sayaka looked inside it and saw something glowing faintly with white light.

"That's a witch? It's so small," Alice said.

"No, it's still in its egg form. It'll take time for it to hatch," Kyuubey said.

"I hope Mami and Madoka can make their way here before the witch hatches," Sayaka muttered. Alice only continued to look at the grief seed without saying anything. She then glanced at Sayaka who still had her worried expression. On the other hand, Sayaka was amazed when she saw Alice seemed to be relaxed ever since they were trapped inside the barrier.

"Umm... Miss Alice. Aren't you afraid of all this?" Sayaka finally asked.

"Frankly speaking, I'm a little bit scared," Alice replied. It was obvious that she had to lie to Sayaka so that Sayaka did not suspect anything at her. "But at the same time, I'm quite curious and excited."

"I know that feeling. We feel that someone with magical powers will come and save us or we will become a magical girl and defeat the witch," Sayaka said.

"Then make a contract with me," Kyuubey once again interrupted, trying to persuade Alice or Sayaka to become a magical girl.

"Geez, Kyuubey. You're so impatient," Sayaka said with a grin while pinching Kyuubey's cheek. Alice clenched her hands as she became more annoyed with Kyuubey's persistence and determination for the fourth time. She wished she could just blew him up and let him rot into ashes. But since Sayaka was there, she had to hold her eager to do such thing. Moreover she did not want Kyuubey to find out that she was able to use magic.

"Kyuubey, what's the situation?" Suddenly Alice heard a girl's voice inside her head. She assumed that the girl who was communicating telepathically with them was Mami.

"We're still okay. It's not going to hatch soon," Kyuubey replied.

"Are you okay, Sayaka?" Alice could hear another voice that she could recognize as Madoka.

"I'm okay," Sayaka replied with a small laugh. "Miss Alice is with me right now."

"Miss Alice?" Mami asked. Sayaka gestured her hand at Alice to try communicating telepathically.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Alice Margatroid," Alice introduced herself. "Just call me Alice."

"M-miss Alice!?" Madoka seemed surprised to hear Alice's voice. "I thought you've already left."

"I am, but I came back again because I'm worried about miss Sayaka," Alice said.

"Nice to meet you, miss Alice. I'm Tomoe Mami. Just call me Mami then," Mami said. "I'm afraid we'll introduce each other more later. Right now we'll have to deal with the witch."

"It's probable a bad idea to use strong magical power to stimulate the egg," Kyuubey said. "Can you come here without making much noise?"

"Yes, I will," Mami replied. "I want you three to stay at where you are."

"Okay," Sayaka said. Then she turned towards Alice after Mami stopped communicating with them. "I guess we'll wait until Mami and Madoka arrive here."

Alice only nodded without saying anything. She hoped that the one named Mami will arrive and destroy the witch's egg before it hatched, or else she had no choice but to use her magic to destroy it. She did not want Sayaka to be hurt by the witch if it hatches. The only problem was that her action will reveal her magic to Kyuubey. She let out a sigh as she tried to find something for her to sit. While Sayaka enthutiacally kept her eyes on the witch's egg with Kyuubey.

...

Mami and Madoka arrived at the hospital fifteen minutes after Alice, Sayaka and Kyuubey got absorbed into the witch's barrier. Mami hurriedly went to the hospital as soon as Madoka told her about nearly hatched witch's egg and Sayaka was there to keep an eye on it with Kyuubey. Madoka felt relieved that Mami was still at the school when she was searching for her. After Mami made sure that Sayaka, Kyuubey and Alice who she had not met were alright, the two of them immediately went inside the barrier.

"I'm glad we've made it in time," Madoka said.

"Honestly, I'm a bit angry at you two for doing something reckless," Mami said. "But at the same time, I'm glad that you've made the right move."

"We're sorry," Madoka said.

"That's okay. Now, we don't even have to worry about the witch getting away..." Mami trailed off as she glared at something with a serious look. Madoka looked at the direction where Mami's eyes seemed to concentrate at and let out a small gasp as she saw another figure walked slowly towards them from behind. She immediately recognized the person as Akemi Homura.

"Homura..." Madoka mumbled as she gazed Homura's eyes.

"I should've told you that I don't want to see you ever again," Mami said in a very serious tone. It seemed to Madoka that Mami was uncomfortable with Homura's presence.

"I'll hunt this one," Homura said. "You two should stay out of this."

"I don't think so. We have to get Sayaka and Kyuubey out of here," Mami said.

"I'll make sure that they're safe," Homura said.

"Do you think that I'll trust you just like that?" Mami asked as she quickly extended her left arm towards Homura. Yellow coloured light emitted from Mami's ring, making Homura stepped back while closing her eye as she tried to prepare for any attack. Suddenly a large red ribbons glowing in yellow light sprouted below Homura before it wrapped around all over her body, restricting her movement. The ribbon was tied to a flower shaped lock. Homura felt the ribbon was tight that she could barely move her body. But she did not try to break free from the ribbon as if she knew that her effort would be useless.

"Y-you fool! This isn't the time for this!" Homura scowled.

"I'm not trying to hurt you but I can't promise that you won't get hurt," Mami said.

"This witch is different from the previous witches that you've encountered," Homura said, trying to convince Mami to release her. "You have to let me destroy the witch."

"I'll release you after I defeated the witch. So be a good girl and stay there quietly," Mami said with a smile. Then she turned towards Madoka who was watching the scene in silence. "Let's go, Kaname."

"O-okay," Madoka stuttered. The two of them started walking, leaving Homura behind. Homura tried to say something towards them but the ribbon tightened as she moved her body, making her gasping for air. Madoka felt guilty for letting Homura tied just like that, but she had to follow Mami since she was under her care.

Mami and Madoka had to hide themselves from familiars that wandered around as they went deeper inside the witch's barrier, fearing that it would attract other familiars to attack them. They stopped at front of a door and immediately went inside it. Madoka and Mami then saw a corridor that was filled with countless bottles full of medicines and weird items.

"So is miss Alice your friend?" Mami asked after she made sure there were no familiars around.

"No, we just met her in the hospital. Sayaka said miss Alice got lost when she tried to find the exit," Madoka replied.

"That's unusual for someone to get lost," Mami said with a giggle. "But I guess she's a foreign since her name is quite unique."

"I also think she may become our ally," Madoka said while smiling.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Mami asked. She turned her head around and looked at Madoka with a curious look.

"Well... she could see Kyuubey," Madoka replied. Mami widened her eyes as she heard what Madoka had just said. She could not avoid herself from curving a big smile on her face. Madoka could see that Mami was happy when she heard there are new potential magical girl. "Even Kyuubey said that she had the potential to become magical girl."

"That's great!" Mami said in a happy tone.

"But miss Alice said that she did not had anything worth wishing for at the moment. So she may take some time to find out what wish that she want to make," Madoka said.

"I see," Mami said.

"Umm Mami, I've been thinking about my wish lately," Madoka said.

"So have you decided on what wish you want to make?" Mami asked.

"Yes, but I think you'll be angry because I feel my wish is too naive," Madoka replied.

"What wish do you want to come true?"

"I've never done well in any subjects and I've never had any talents. I'm pretty sure that I'd just be a hindrance and wouldn't be able to help people. I don't like this, but I couldn't do anything about it," Madoka said. Mami only listened to Madoka without saying anything as they went inside a door which led them to another corridor. Madoka took a few breaths before she continued to explain further about her wish. "But... you showed me how you fight to save people. You even told me that I can do the same thing like you did and I felt that was the most wonderful thing that I wanted to hear all this time. That's why I believe that all I need to do is to become a magical girl in order to fulfill my dream so that someone like me can become useful to someone else. I want to live being proud of myself of what I'm able to achieve by myself. That's my biggest dream."

"It won't be easy. You'll get injured and you won't even have any time for having fun," Mami said.

"But you still tried so hard despite those situations. So that's why you're my role model and dream," Madoka said with a smile. Mami suddenly stopped walking when she heard Madoka said something like that. Madoka started to become worried that Mami would scold at her for having such childish and silly thoughts.

"I'm not someone for you to use and refer as your role model," Mami said after she went silent for a few seconds. "I'm only pushing myself too hard by becoming a cool person. There's no one I can talk with when I'm afraid or having a hard time. All I can do is crying by myself. There's nothing good about becoming a magical girl when you think about it deeply."

"But you're not alone now, Mami," Madoka tried to comfort her. She somehow understood how Mami felt lonely all this time since she had to endure all the pain in engaging witches all by herself without anyone by her side to help her.

"I... guess you're right," Mami said. Madoka was surprised when Mami turned around and suddenly touched her hands. She could see Mami's tears started to swell as she gazed at her eyes. "Do you really intend to fight alongside me from now on? Will you be my side?"

"Yes, if someone like me can do that," Madoka said with a smile.

"Oh dear, you got me," Mami said with a smile as she wiped her tears. "I tried to act as your mentor. But it turned out to be something that I can't do. But... you'll only get this wishing opportunity once in a lifetime, so think carefully about your wish. A contract to become a magical girl still is a contract although you can obtain whatever you wanted and do whatever you want to do. You can become a billionaire or even get a cute boyfriend."

"W-well... O-okay," Madoka was a little bit loss for words when she heard that she could wish for a boyfriend. For a brief moment, she forgot what her wish was.

"Mami! The grief seed started to move!" Mami suddenly heard Kyuubey's voice. "It's gonna hatch soon! Please hurry!"

"Okay, I'll finish this in one go," Mami said in a very loud voice, attracting every witch's familiars around them. As she changed into her magical girl outfit, the environment inside the barrier suddenly changed into layers of strawberry cakes. After Mami put a ribbon defense barrier around Madoka, she leaped onto the lower floor while conjuring several muskets. Some of the familiars began to engage in fighting her but she managed to kill all of them, shooting and hitting them with her muskets.

Mami noticed that her fight at that moment was different from usual. Somehow she felt she could move more freely because the fear that had been enshrouding her mind all this time had disappear. It was as if the invisible chain that had binds her body and soul shattered instantly. Mami felt thankful to Madoka since it was her that she could feel rest assured and peaceful at that moment as she continued to fight swarms of familiars. Madoka also witnessed Mami fought more gracefully than she had seen before. The two of them continued to break through swarms of familiars until they arrived at front of a door with strange drawings. They immediately opened the door and went inside, leading them to a large room filled with different kind of pastries.

"Mami, we're right here," Mami heard Sayaka's voice and looked towards the direction where the voice came from. She saw Sayaka, Kyuubey and a blonde lady that she assumed as Alice hiding behind a large donut. Mami and Madoka quickly went and gathered with the three of them.

"We're sorry we're late," Mami said with a smile.

"It's okay," Sayaka replied with a grin. Then she gestured her hand at Alice. "Ah, this is Alice that I'm talking about earlier."

"We're sorry that you've got involved in this," Mami said as she bowed her head slightly towards Alice.

"It's okay. After all, the three of us are unhurt," Alice said with a smile. Alice looked at Mami as they met face to face. Mami was wearing a white shirt with yellow ribbom tied to its collar and a pair of detached sleeves. Her brown skirt matched with her boots perfectly. She also wore a beret with some feathers on the right side. Her soul gem took a shape that looked like a flower beautifully decorated her hair ornaments. Alice thought that Mami's magical outfit really matched her elegant appearance.

"Watch out! It's going to appear!" Kyuubey interrupted their conversation. All of them watched something glittering not far away from in front of them before the witch suddenly appeared, sitting on a chair. Alice carefully observed the witch's appearance that looked like a doll with candy-like head.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your tea time, but I'm afraid I'm going to defeat you," Mami said as she knocked the chair that the witch was sitting on. She then conjured a musket and smacked the witch onto the wall before it even reached the ground.

She conjured few more muskets and shot the witch three times. Since it did not show any resistance, Mami thought that it was the easiest witch that she had ever fought. As it dropped onto the floor, she conjured another two muskets and pulled one of the musket's trigger on the witch's head. Mami stepped back as dozens of yellow strings sprouted underneath the witch and hunged it above on the air.

"Yes! She got it!" Sayaka shouted in a cheerful and excited tone. Madoka also smiled as she saw Mami was winning against the witch. Meanwhile, Alice started to feel uneasy while watching the whole scene since the witch was defeated too easy.

"Tiro Finale!" Mami shouted as the musket that she held turned into gigantic cannon and shot it towards the witch. The bullet hit directly and pierced through the witch before a ribbon wrapped tightly around its body. All of them could see something that looked like a worm slowly emerged out of the witch's mouth. It had a black body with red polka dots and its face was similar to those of a clown that someone would find in a circus.

Mami only watched with a smile on her face as she noticed the new form of witch. The moment she thought that it was also harmless, the witch suddenly appeared few inches in front of her face within a second. Mami widened her eyes as she watched the witch slowly opened its mouth, revealing its sharp jaws. She could feel her heartbeat went faster as her body suddenly became weaker. She tried to move her body but failed. She felt her mind could not even react as it only played back all her memories that she had and imagining what would happen next when she looked at the witch's mouth. Madoka and Sayaka widened their eyes in shock as they witnessed Mami's head slowly went inside the witch's mouth.

Alice gritted her teeth in anger as she watched the witch approached Mami at a very fast pace. At that time she had to choose between two choices. One, she had to watch Mami being killed by the witch. Two, she had to use her magic, save Mami and reveal her true identity to Kyuubey. Suddenly, the witch shriek in pain as several homing round projectiles came out of nowhere and constantly hit and knocking it until it fell onto the floor. Before it could even move, countless knives appeared around the witch and stabbed all over its body. Madoka and Sayaka looked around and saw three figure approached the witch from the mid air.

"Miss Remilia! Miss Sakuya!" Madoka was surprised as she recognized instantly two of the three figures. While they curiously looked at the third person that they had not seen before. The girl wore a red gothic lolita style dress with black frills and yellow ribbon, a large red hat with plush rabbit head on either side of the hat, and black and red boots. She had a pair dark blue eyes and a long red hair tied into a braid. The girl was holding something that looked like a hammer or a polo mallet on her left hand.

"Miss Alice, are you all right?" Alice could hear Vita's voice in her head. It seemed to her that Vita could communicate telepathically as well.

"I'm fine, but I think the blonde girl you three just saved isn't," Alice replied. "How did you get here?"

"I was assisting miss Remilia in collecting some blood pack at the hospital when she said she could sense a witch's barrier nearby. We arrived here when the blonde girl was fighting the witch. So we just let the girl fought it until she was nearly killed."

"Is it safe for us to communicate using telepathy?" Alice asked.

"What do you mean?" Vita asked back.

"The creature in front of me is Kyuubey and he could communicate using telepathic ability as well," Alice replied.

"Dang! So we revealed ourselves to him," Vita said. "Don't worry. I'm using my magic to communicate with you. I don't think he'll be able to intercept and hear us."

"I see," Alice said. "So far only you three had reveal your magic to him. I've still kept my magic a secret. For now, let's act like we don't know each other and finish off the witch for us. Tell Remilia and Sakuya that for me."

"We can hear you, Alice," Remilia interrupted. "Vita used her communication magic on us."

Vita immediately engaged on fighting the witch with Sakuya. While Remilia slowly decended from the air and approaced Mami who was still standing still. Mami fell on the floor as she snapped back into reality and surprised to see Remilia's face few inches from her.

"My, my, Tomoe Mami. What's wrong?" Remilia asked with a grin. "You seemed to be afraid to attack the witch. Let us deal with it while you're cowering here then."

Madoka and Sayaka were amazed by the strength that Remilia showed as she only used her fists to punch the witch. The witch tried to bite and swallowed Remilia but failed as she was too fast for it to catch. Then it turned at Sakuya who flew near it and tried the same thing that it did to Remilia. But Sakuya kept disappearing from its sight before reappeared again at other area. It continued to trailed to wherever Sakuya went before Sakuya finally threw a knife towards it. The single knife suddenly multiplied into countless knives and hit all over the witch's body. The witch was busy dealing with Remilia and Sakuya that it did not noticed Vita was flying above it.

"Graf Eisen! Raketen Form!" Vita ordered. Magic circle formed underneath her before Graf Eisen ejected a cartridge and changed its form into something that looked like a rocket propeller. Vita then accelerated towards the witch as the propeller on her hammer boosted up and smacked it on the witch's body.

"Amazing," Madoka said. "Even the girl in red is really strong."

"Yeah, she swung her hammer like it was nothing," Sayaka said. Kyuubey only observed Remilia, Sakuya and Vita as they kept engaging with the witch. Since the witch's effort to kill the three of them proved futile, the witch turned its attention back towards Mami who was still sitting on the floor without moving to a safe place.

"Don't think about it!" Remilia shouted with a grin as she rushed towards the witch and punched hard on the witch's face, causing it to waver in dizziness. Vita and Sakuya continued with their attacks before it could even regain its balance. Soon, the witch finally admitted its defeat as it lay still on the floor without moving anymore. It slowly closed its eyes as its body dissolved into the thin air. The witch's barrier began to crumble before the environment around all of them changed back into the bicycle parking lot at the hospital. All of them sigh in relief as the fight was finally over. Mami gazed at Remilia who approached her as she changed back her magical outfit into her school uniform.

"Tomoe Mami, you really disappointed me," Remilia said with a smirk. "When I first met you, Kaname Madoka and Miki Sayaka, I thought you're a strong and brave girl. But now all I see is a helpless and naive little girl who doesn't know anything until death comes around. I think you rather stay at home and do something like other normal girls do since you're incapable of preparing for the worst."

"I agree," Vita said after Remilia finished her sentence. "Being able to use magic isn't for fame or to become a hero. It's about responsibility."

Mami was taken aback with Remilia and Vita's remark. As much as she wanted to argue, she could not deny the fact that she was nearly killed by the witch. In her mind, she would be at fault if anything happens to Madoka, Sayaka and Alice if it were not for Remilia, Sakuya and Vita that came and saved them. Madoka covered her mouth with her hand as she was shocked that Remilia and Vita said something harsh to Mami after what she had just experienced earlier. Sayaka clenched her hand as she tried to suppress her anger towards Remilia and Vita. She wanted to help Mami from being insulted by the two of them, but she did not have the courage to do so. Suddenly Sayaka saw Alice stood up and walked before she stood in front of Mami, facing Remilia, Vita and Sakuya.

"If you have nothing to say besides insulting her, then leave!" Alice said in a serious tone. Remilia only stared at her before she understood what she meant by that.

"Fine, we'll leave," Remilia said before she turned around and walked away, followed by Sakuya. Vita looked at Alice before she also left the hospital.

"Madoka, who were they?" Kyuubey finally spoke after he went silent after he observed Remilia and the other two.

"Ermm..." Madoka tried to find a way to explain to Kyuubey. She had a hard time to tell a lie since she was not the type to do such thing to people. She could not tell the truth about Remilia and Sakuya either since they had been warned by them before. While she did not even know anything about Vita because it was the first time she saw her.

"They're magical girls," Sayaka was the one who answered Kyuubey's question. "The one with bat wings is Remilia and the one in maid outfit is Sakuya. I don't know about the girl with the hammer since we never met her before."

"It's strange that I can't recall of them making a contract with me," Kyuubey replied. "Just like Homura whom also I didn't remember making a contract with."

"So they're... just like Homura?" Sayaka asked.

"It seems so."

"Are you all right, miss Mami?" Alice asked as she helped Mami standing up.

"I'm okay," Mami said with a smile. Her body struggled as she tried to stand up, as if she did not have any energy left to do so. Mami then took her school bag and slowly walked away. Madoka looked at her with a concerned expression.

"Mami," Madoka muttered as she tried to follow her from behind.

"I'm sorry, Madoka. I just remember I had something to do," Mami said as she turned around, looking at Madoka before she started walking again. Madoka was worried about Mami but she felt that what Mami had just said indicates that she wanted them to leave her alone for a while. All of them looked at Mami as she left them when Madoka noticed something and began to look around. Suddenly Homura appeared in front of Madoka, Sayaka, Kyuubey and Alice, suprising them all.

"Homura," Sayaka growled.

"I hope you two learn from this battle," Homura said. "Nothing good comes when someone become a magical girl. Tomoe Mami was lucky that she didn't get killed by the witch. I warn you two again. Don't become a magical girl if you value your life."

After having said that, Homura immediately walked away and left the hospital.

"You can't decide for other people!" Sayaka shouted, although she knew that Homura would not even listen to her.

"I think I'll also leave for now," Alice said as she bowed towards Madoka and Sayaka. The two of them did not have the chance to talk to Alice as she quickly left them behind. As soon as she left the hospital, she immediately went into a shop. After she made sure that no one followed her, she tried to contact Vita through her cell phone. She could hear there was few ringing sound before she heard Vita's voice.

"Miss Alice, is something wrong?" Vita asked.

"Can you do me a favor?" Alice requested.

...

It was already night time when Mami arrived at her apartment. She immediately slumped her tired body on a sofa as soon as she closed the door, staring blankly at the ceiling while her mind recalled back everything that Remilia and Vita had just said. No matter how hard she tried to shrug it off from her head, all those words kept lingering inside her mind.

**Ding! Dong!**

Suddenly she heard her apartment's door bell rung. She got up from the sofa and immediately went towards the door, while wondering if it was Madoka and Sayaka who came to see her. Mami widened her eyes as she opened the door and saw Alice stood in front of her. She glanced down and saw Alice was holding two plastic bags on her right hand. One of it was full of cooking ingredients. The other one was full of fabrics and textiles. Mami thought that Alice seemed came to her apartment after buying some grocery. While her left hand was holding a large and thick book on her chest.

"Miss Alice!?" Mami said in a surprised tone.

"Good evening, miss Mami," Alice greeted as she bowed slightly towards Mami.

"Good evening," Mami returned the greet. "How did you know I live here!?"

"Kaname Madoka and Miki Sayaka told me," Alice replied. The truth was that Alice had asked Vita to follow Mami to her apartment.

"I see. Is... there something I can do for you?"

"Can we speak for a moment?" Alice asked.

"Sure, come in," Mami said with a smile. "Make yourself at home while I prepare some tea."

Since Alice was the type who kept everything clean, she had a high respect for Mami as she saw her apartment was nice, clean and tidy. The apartment was spacious with little furniture decorating the living room. There was a small corridor to her right which she assumed it leads to other rooms. She could smell sweet fragrance filled the air the moment she sat on the floor in front of a table, which made her more comfortable. Somehow she felt that she missed her house back in Gensokyo although she had just been at the outside world for about five days. As soon as Mami finished making some tea and put it on the table, she sat on the floor facing directly at Alice.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Mami asked. She suddenly remembered that Madoka mentioned about Alice had the potential to become a magical girl. She then clasped her hand and continued asking, "Is it possible that you want to become a magical girl?"

"Sadly, that's not the reason I'm here," Alice replied. She could see sadness in Mami's eyes although she was smiling. Alice continued to explain her purpose on meeting Mami further as she bowed slightly towards her, "I'm here because I want to apologize to you."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Mami asked as she tilted her head. That was not something that she would expect to hear from Alice. "Why did you apologize? You didn't do anything wrong."

"I apologize on behalf of Remilia and Vita for saying something harsh to you," Alice said.

"It's okay, you don't have to apologize for someone you don't know. It's not your fault that they had to help me and said such things after that," Mami said. While she knew Remilia and Sakuya, she guessed that name Vita referred to the girl in red. Alice could saw Mami's hand that were holding the teacup trembling slightly as she continued speaking "What miss Remilia and miss Vita had said were right. I should've live a normal life rather than becoming a magical girl if I hadn't made a contract with Kyuubey to help defeat witches. As an experienced magical girl, I knew that fighting witches could be dangerous. But I was so caught up on trying so hard to impress Madoka and Sayaka that I forgot about all that. Now I've survived from death twice."

"Twice?" Alice asked.

"Before, my parents and I had a car accident. Then Kyuubey came and helped me, so I survived from the accident. Now, I survived because miss Remilia, miss Sakuya and miss Vita saved me from being killed by the witch. Not only I endangered myself, I had also endangered Madoka and Sayaka because of my naïve and careless mistake. I'm not qualified to be a mentor or even a magical girl. I'm really useless and helpless," Mami said without pausing. She did not realize her body started to tremble until Alice touched her left hand firmly. Mami looked at Alice who now was sitting beside her.

"Miss Mami, I disagree on what you, Remilia and miss Vita had just said," Alice said with a smile. "You're not someone useless just because you were careless, trying to impress someone and ended up made a mistake. I believe that you're a great magical girl who saved many lives before."

Mami could not suppress her feelings anymore when her tears flowed heavily down her cheeks. She instantly buried her face on Alice's chest as she let out a loud cry, making Alice startled by her action. Alice then patted Mami's head slowly as she looked at her. She felt sorry for her because she took the responsibility and burden as a magical girl without knowing anything.

"I... I'm afraid..." Mami said as she continued to sob and snort. "I... I thought... I was going to die... My mind kept playing all my memories as I watched the witch opened it's mouth... I was helpless... I can't even move my body to dodge the witch... I thought I was going to die."

"Shh, it's over now and you're still alive," Alice said in a soft tone. "I've watched you fighting the witch and you did great."

"But I... I..." Mami tried to say something, but she was interrupted by Alice.

"Mistakes and failures is a process to achieve something even greater," Alice said. "I guess that you're angry and frustrated at yourself because you felt that you failed at everything, including in protecting Madoka and Sayaka. But if you try to learn from your mistakes, I'm sure you'll become a greater magical girl."

Alice embraced Mami as she continued to cry. She did not care her clothes became wet by Mami's tears. She felt relieved that Mami was able to let out her emotions without holding back. After a while, Mami rose her hear from Alice's chest when the sound of her cry slowly faded, wiping her tears away. She tried to curve a small smile at Alice although she was still sobbing.

"I'm sorry that you had to see my behavior," Mami said as she felt embarrassed by her behavior.

"That's okay. Emotion is an important part of being a human. If you tried to hide or throw away your emotions, you will be a lifeless doll."

"Please keep this as a secret from Madoka and Sayaka. They'll think that I'm not cool anymore if they found out about this," Mami requested.

"I promise I'll keep this matter as a secret," Alice said with a smile. Then she took out a grief seed from her pocket and gave it to Mami. "You forgot to take this earlier. You might need to use it to cleanse you soul gem."

"Eh? How did you know about soul gem and grief seeds?" Mami tried to ask. She remembered that she did not mention anything about soul gem and grief seeds.

"Madoka told me about it," Alice said, telling another lie. Then she put a finger on her mouth, indicating that she did not want Mami to ask more questions for the time being. Mami took the grief seed and took out her soul gem. She suddenly let out a gasp and widened her eyes as she stared at the soul gem.

"What's wrong?" Alice asked.

"My soul gem is really tainted," Mami replied. Alice looked at Mami's soul gem and saw half of the soul gem had darkened.

"Maybe because you used it on earlier battle," Alice said.

"But it's impossible to be this tainted from just only one battle."

"I see. You'd better cleanse it right now," Alice said. The grief seed slowly absorbed the taint on Mami's soul gem as she put near it. After she let go of her embrace, Alice immediately stood up and started walking towards the kitchen.

"M-miss Alice, where are you going?" Mami asked.

"I'm going to cook dinner for us if you don't mind," Alice replied.

"Y-you don't have to. You've done so much for me by being a good listener," Mami said.

"It's alright. After all, I bought these ingredients for me to cook something for you," Alice said.

"But what about your family?"

"They're going to be fine. Don't worry about them too much," Alice said as she refered Reimu and the others as 'family'. "I'm the one who should apologize since I'm going to use your kitchen without your consent."

"No, it's alright," Mami said as she got up. "I'm the one who should apologize because you're too concerned about me."

"That's okay."

"Then... I'll help you preparing dinner."

"Thank you," Alice said with a smile. Alice felt a little bit relieved to see Mami was able to smile like she saw her the first time they met. As soon as they finished preparing their dinner, they immediately sat around the table and enjoying their food. After they finished their dinner and cleaning up the dishes, Alice sat on the sofa for a while with Mami. Alice only kept silent as Mami did not say anything much to her ever since they went into the kitchen.

"I think I'll be leaving now. I don't want to disturb you too much," Alice said as she shuffled her body, getting ready to get up from the sofa.

"W-wait," Mami immediately tugged Alice's clothes.

"Yes?" Alice asked as looked at Mami. Mami took a few deep breaths, opening and closing her mouth a few times as she hesitated to say anything that was on her mind. The two of them went silent for a few second as Alice was waiting for Mami to speak.

"U-umm, miss Alice. Can you stay overnight here?" Mami finally gathered the courage to ask Alice.

"Well if you want me to stay overnight, sure," Alice replied. Mami was joyful to hear Alice's answer. She immediately prepares a hot water for Alice to have a bath. After they finished taking their bath in turn, Mami provided Alice a pajama for her to wear.

"I'll be fine sleeping on the sofa," Alice said as she walked towards the sofa. Once again, Mami tugged Alice clothes. Alice turned and looked at Mami, waiting for her to say anything that was in her mind again.

"U-um... I-if you don't mind... C-can you sleep with me on my bed?" Mami stuttered as she asked. She immediately looked down at the floor, trying to hide her embarassed expression.

"Wha-!?" Alice seemed surprised by Mami's request. "Why do you want me to sleep with you?"

"You reminded me of my mother," Mami replied. She rose up her head and saw Alice blushed before she continued to say her random thoughts out loud. "I mean... It's not that you you're old and looked like my mother or anything. It's just that you were too kind to me and I'm really comfortable with it... Oh my, what am I saying!? I'm really sorry."

"Alright then, I'll sleep with you if it can make you feel happy," Alice said as she patted Mami's head. She had a hard time to utter her reply since that was the first time someone asked her to sleep together. Instead of feeling annoyed by the way Alice treated her, Mami felt happy and comfortable with it. They immediately went up the ladder and lay on the bed together as soon as Mami turned off the light. Thirty minutes had passed and Alice was still wide awake. She looked at a small clock near her and saw it was still 10 PM. On the other hand, Mami had already gone to sleep. After Alice looked at Mami who had slumbered peacefully for a while, she quietly crept out from the bed and went down the ladder.

...

**At Oriko's Mansion (10 PM):**

"I've received an email from Alice," Marisa said while waving her cell phone as she entered the living room. All residents in Oriko's mansion still had not gone to sleep since they were discussing about hunting witches. Nanoha, Fate and Arf also present at the mansion at that time. "She said she will be staying with a girl named Tomoe Mami. So she might be with the girl for a while."

"I see," Remilia said with a smile. "She's too kind to help the poor girl."

"So were you," Reimu said, narrowing her eyes as she gave a big grin at Remilia. "It's so unlikely for you to help humans."

"It's not that I felt pity for her," Remilia snorted. "I don't want her to die yet."

"You do felt pity on her, or else you'll just let her be killed," Reimu said. Remilia only looked at her with annoyance. Nanoha and the other only kept silence as they listened to Reimu and Remilia's conversation.

"Put that aside, now we must focus on Kyuubey," Patchouli said. "Since he had seen Remi, Sakuya and miss Vita, I don't think we'll be able to hide ourselves anymore."

"So what should we do now?" Nanoha asked.

"I think that we can only keep our purpose on coming to this city a secret since we can't completely conceal our magic and our presence," Patchouli said. "If Kyuubey or any magical girls knows our objectives, they may be a hindrance to us."

"I think I'll agree with that," Fate said.

"That means we have to lie everything about ourselves," Marisa said.

"That's something that you're good at," Patchouli said.

...

It was about 3 AM when Mami woke up from her sleep. She immediately got up as she noticed that Alice was not beside her. As she went outside her bedroom, she could see Alice was sitting on the sofa with mall table lamp that brightened up the living room. Mami was curious as she saw something that looked like a doll seemed floating beside Alice. She slowly went down the ladder without making any noise. But her effort to make such action failed as Alice suddenly turned around and gasped when she saw Mami was behind her.

"Oh my, you're awake," Alice said in a uneasy tone. Mami widened her eyes when she carefully observed the floating doll and saw it moved its head.

"Miss Alice, what're you doing? And how did that doll moving and floating on the air?" Mami asked before her mind clicked with on only possible answer. "Don't tell me that you're..."

"I'm making some dolls. As for your second question, my doll was able to move and float because I'm the one who manipulated it. If you had a thought that I can use magic, then you're correct. Although I'm not what you refer to as magical girl because I'm only a magician," Alice replied.

"So that's why you knew about grief seeds and soul gem," Mami said. "So does that mean you're just like miss Remilia and miss Sakuya? Does that mean you know them?"

"Yes, I'm just like Remilia and Sakuya. I do know them since I'm currently living with them, including Vita," Alice replied. Then she stood up and bowed towards Mami. "I'm sorry for keeping this a secret because I've made a promise not to show it to anyone. I'm sorry that I was hesitated to use my magic to save you."

"I-it's okay. You had your reason for not using your magic," Mami said.

"Since you already know about my secret, I suppose I will help you on your witch hunt from now on."

"Really?" Mami seemed happy to hear what Alice had just said.

"Yes. But promise me that you won't tell about me and my magic to Kyuubey or anyone," Alice said.

"But how about Madoka and Sayaka?" Mami asked. "They'll most likely tagged along when I'm hunting witches, and Kyuubey always around them too."

"I see," Alice said. "I guess there's no point hiding my magic from them then. I'll see what I can do about it while you will pretend that you don't know anything."

"Okay."

"There's one more thing," Alice said. "Promise me that you will stay strong physically, mentally and spiritually from now on because there may be a lot of things that are unexpected will happen. Don't let what you've experienced earlier during your fight with the witch becomes your hinderance to grow strong."

"I'll... try... to keep all that promises," Mami said. Although she was hesitated, but in her mind she will try her best to not disappoint Alice's expectation and trust that she had put on her.

"If you don't keep your promise, then I'll tell miss Madoka and miss Sayaka that you cried," Alice said with a grin.

"I promise that I will stay strong? Please don't tell them that I cried," Mami said in a panic voice, making Alice giggle as she looked at her.

"Alright then. Since I'm making some dolls right now, would you like me to make a doll version of you?"

"You can do that?" Mami asked.

"Yes," Alice replied.

"Then, please do," Mami said with a smile. She was amazed as she watched Alice took out few raw clothing materials from the plastic bag and started making a doll version of her from the scratch with full interest. In her mind, she was wondering why she did not feel angry or upset towards Alice. Instead Mami felt grateful and happy that she met her, hoping that she would be able to learn something from Alice.

...

**At Arthra:**

"Amy, have they done with their analysis on the data that Nanoha sent before?" Lindy asked as she took a sip of her tea.

"No, they mentioned that they need one or two more data of the witches since they need more concrete proof of it," Amy replied.

"I see," Lindy said. "Just send them the data that we've already analyzed and I'll request them to aquire more data."

* * *

**Side story:**

Homura tried hard to break free from Mami's ribbon. But the ribbon tightened itself as she tried to move. She growled in frustration as her effort failed. Her mind thought everything that could happen to her or Madoka.

"Oh my, Akemi Homura. What a coincidence," Suddenly Homura could hear a voice behind her. She could not see who was behind her until the person walked in front of her. "Why are you tied here? Is it because you're a bad girl?"

"Miss Remilia! Miss Sakuya!" Homura looked at two of three figures. While she curiously looked at Vita since that was the first time she saw her. She assumed that Vita was the friend that Remilia mentioned before. "What're you doing here?"

"We're just visiting the hospital to obtain some blood pack. Then I sensed a magical energy around and here I am inside the witch's barrier," Remilia said before she turned and started to walk away. "I'll be going and defeat the witch now while you're staying there."

Homura only looked at Remilia disappeared out from her sight. She wanted to ask for Remilia's help, but it seemed that Remilia was not willing to help her at all. She had no other choice but to stay still while being tied with the ribbon.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: The New Me**

**Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!**

An alarm from the table clock rung as its hand struck at seven. Mami groaned as she rubbed her eyes while extending her other arm, trying to turn off the alarm before she slowly got up and stretched her body. She put down the window's curtain to let the morning sunlight brightened the room. As she got outside the room, she could smell sweet aroma of foods and tea. She blinked her eyes for a moment before she remembered that Alice was staying at her apartment. Mami quickly went towards the kitchen just to see Alice had already finished preparing and putting the dishes on the table at the living room. Mami widened her eyes in amazement as she saw several dolls were floating around, helping Alice carrying the dishes to the living room. The movement of the dolls was so smooth that it made Mami felt the dolls were really alive.

"Good morning," Alice greeted with a smile. "Breakfast is ready."

"Miss Alice, why did you need to trouble yourself to prepare breakfast for us?" Mami asked in a concerned voice.

"It's alright. After all, you let me stay in your apartment. This is the only thing that I can do for now to show my gratitude," Alice replied. "You have to go to school today right? Then you'd better get ready."

"O-okay," Mami said. After Mami cleaned herself and wore her school uniform, she went the living room and sat on the sofa in with Alice. Mami was entranced to see freshly cooked rice, soup and omelet.

"I apologize that I only cook simple dishes because I don't know your favorite food," Alice said.

"It's fine, really. In fact, I appreciate your cooking. I'm really happy with it," Mami said.

"Let's have our breakfast then. You don't want to be late for school right?" Alice asked. Mami only nodded in response. That morning was the first time she had some breakfast with someone in a long time. She felt nostalgic as she recalled back her memories of when her parents were still alive.

"By the way, are you ready for today's witch hunt?" Alice asked.

"I think I am," Mami replied hastily.

"Don't think too much about what happened yesterday at the hospital," Alice said. "Whether it be Remilia and miss Vita's criticism or about the witch. I know you're still dealing with your bad experience about it and couldn't shrug it off. But you must overcome it or else you'll end up in fear and grief."

"I-I'll try to overcome the problem. I'm sorry that you're concerned about me," Mami said. After they finished their meal, several dolls came to pick up the empty plates and teacups and carried it to the kitchen. Mami could hear the sound of running water from the tap, indicating that the dolls immediately washed and cleaned all the dishes.

'Miss Alice, have you been able to control all these dolls?" Mami asked as she gazed at the doll hovering near her.

"Yes, why do you ask?" Alice replied.

"It's nothing. I just think that you had a wonderful ability," Mami said.

"Thank you."

"I'd better get going now," Mami said.

"Have a nice day," Alice said as she waved at Mami. Mami only smiled and waved at Alice in response as she went towards the front door. After she put on her shoes, she immediately went outside and slowly closed the door.

"Now then, I guess I'm going now," Alice muttered after she took a few minutes to make sure all the room was clean and tidy. Since Mami's room apartment was on the upper level, Alice had to use an elevator to descend to the ground floor. As Alice went outside the elevator, she could see a girl standing near the gate. The girl had a long gray hair tied into a side ponytail. She wore an elegant black dress matching with her shoes. Her green eyes stared at the empty streets without blinking before she noticed Alice who was walking towards her.

"Oriko," Alice called the girl.

"Good morning, miss Alice," Oriko said as she bowed slightly towards Alice. "Shall we go?"

"Yes."

Since Alice was not yet familiar with the city, she had to call Oriko to help guiding her to the mansion. Alice let out a small sigh as flying through the sky was out of option because it would attract people's attention, especially since magic was uncommon on the world outside Gensokyo. She did not want to the teleportation spell as she wanted to look around the city. Since Oriko's mansion was quite far away, they had to take a bus that could take them to the bus station that was nearest to the mansion. As the two of them passed the mansion's gate, Alice could see the garden that was once beautifully decorated was now full of craters. Alice could not help but to wonder who was in charge in training Oriko that resulted in such scenery.

"I can see you're training really hard," Alice said as she pointed her finger at the garden.

"Y-yeah," Oriko said. "This morning, miss Signum was in charge of training me."

"So how was it?"

"It was really hard since I've asked her to not go too easy on me. But I've been able to conjure more spheres now."

"That's great," Alice said, curving a small smile. "But the sad thing is that your beautiful garden is ruined."

"Don't worry, miss Signum said that they can fix it later with their magic," Oriko said. "Though I prefer to let it this way as a momento."

"Oh," Alice said. She could not help but to wonder why Oriko wanted her ruined garden to be a momento.

"We're back," Oriko said as they entered the mansion.

"Welcome back," Shamal who emerged out from the living room greeted back, followed by Reimu,

"Ah Alice, you're back," Reimu said. "So how's your stay with miss Tomoe Mami that you've met?"

"Well, she found out my magic. But I didn't told her anything about Gensokyo or anything related," Alice replied. "I told her to keep my identity a secret though."

"I see," Reimu said. "We've already discussed that matter last night and we've agreed that we should keep our purpose on coming here as a secret if we couldn't conceal our magic if there's an emergency in which we had to use it."

"So does it mean we have to lie about everything?"

"Yes. Including about ourselves and where we came from."

"But the problem is miss Mami had already knew that I'm not a magical girl because I've accidentally told her," Alice said. Reimu scratched her head as she suddenly had a headache. All the plan that they created had unexpectedly failed one by one. Reimu started to get annoyed when she heard what Alice had just said. But she guessed she could not blame Alice because her pride as a magician would not let her being called a magical girl.

"Argh! Do anything you can to keep everything that you think important a secret then," Reimu said in frustration.

"What about Kyuubey? Did you meet him?" Shamal asked.

"Yes," Alice replied. "According to two persons named Kaname Madoka and Miki Sayaka, it seems that only the one who had the potential to become a magical girl can see him. Since I was able to see him, he offered me to make a wish and in exchange I have to become a magical girl. That only thing so far was that he didn't explain anything furthermore."

"So the two of them are also magical girls?" Reimu asked.

"So far only miss Mami was the only one who had become a magical girl. Kaname Madoka and Miki Sayaka still haven't decide whether they want to become a magical girl or not."

"I see," Reimu muttered as she put her left hand under her chin. "Then for now I suppose you'll keep an eye on the three of them and prevent miss Kaname Madoka and miss Miki Sayaka from making a contract with Kyuubey."

"Yes," Alice said.

"Pardon me for asking, but why do we have to prevent someone from becoming a magical girl?" Shamal asked.

"Like we've discussed before, Kyuubey in an untrustworthy being for some reason and we need to confirm that," Reimu replied.

"By the way, where's Patchouli?" Alice quickly asked, interrupting the conversation so that Shamal did not ask any more questions.

"She's in the study room," Shamal replied. "Do you want me to call her?"

"No, I'll go to the study room then," Alice said. She took off her boots and immediately headed towards the study room. Inside, Alice could see more books floating around than before. There were also a lot of books stacking on the table. She noticed that there was a mob cap moving behind the mountains of books. Alice immediately went towards it and saw Patcthouli was intensely reading a book.

"Patchouli," Alice called in a low voice so that Patchouli would not startled by her 'sudden' appearance. Patchouli took notice and lifted her head, looking at Alice.

"Ah, you're back," Patchouli said. "Is there something you want from me?"

"I want to ask you something about the soul gem," Alice said. "Is it possible that the soul gem will be tainted intensely from just one simple fight?"

"From what I've recorded in my research notes up until now, there's no possibility of it to occur," Patchouli replied. "Why do you ask?"

"When I met and gave miss Mami a grief seed after our encounter with a witch, she was surprised to see there's a lot of taint on her soul gem. I assumed that the taint was the result from her fight earlier, but she said that it's impossible for the soul gem to taint that much," Alice explained.

"I see," Patchouli said as she put her hands under her chin before she remembered something. "I remembered that Oriko also had the same experience with her soul gem yesterday. She and Marisa told me that she only used her barrier during her fight with miss Kyoko when she went on a shopping with Reimu, miss Hayate and Shamal. After they came back, Oriko immediately went to her room. Marisa told me that Oriko was sad after her encounter with Kyoko before she noticed Oriko's soul gem was getting more tainted."

Alice only listened to Patchouli's explanation before she noticed something.

"Miss Mami also was in similar experience with Oriko," Alice said.

"What do you mean?" Patchouli asked in a very interested tone.

"During her fight with a witch yesterday, she was nearly got killed by it. But Remilia, Sakuya and miss Vita saved her and they criticize her when the fight was over. When I've visited her place and consulted her, she started to cry since she was feeling down. Then I gave her the grief seed for her to use. That's when she noticed the large amount of taint on her soul gem," Alice said.

"I see," Patchouli said after she finished writing everything that Alice had just said. "I can see the similarity between the two situations is that the soul gem became more tainted when they became sad or depressed. I'll try to look into this matter further."

"I'll be counting on you then. I'm gonna take some rest before I'm going back to miss Mami's apartment," Alice said before she turned around and left the study room. Patchouli reviewed at the notes that she just wrote and compared it to other notes about soul gems, grief seeds and witches before she closed her eyes, going into her deep thoughts as she tried to synthesize all the information together.

...

"It's really sunny today," Sayaka said as she gazed the clear blue sky.

"Yeah," Madoka said. Both of them were at the school rooftop, having their lunch together. While their were focusing on the classes that they will be having after lunch time, their mind sometimes lingering on what they had witnessed and experienced at the hospital yesterday.

"Say, Madoka... Do you still intend to make a contract with Kyuubey in exchange for your wish?" Sayaka asked.

"Why do you ask?" Madoka asked back.

"Well... you know that we saw something horrible that was going to happen yesterday... I thought that maybe we had a change of heart."

"I don't know," Madoka replied. "I'm still hesitant to choose whether I should make a wish or not. Even if I do want to make a wish, I'm still not very clear myself of what my wish truly are."

"I wonder if Mami was all right," Sayaka said as she chewed her bread.

"Yeah, we haven't seen her today. Not to mention that we didn't manage to visit her yesterday," Madoka said. Suddenly a pair hands closed Madoka's eyes before the owner of the hands let it go.

"Mami!" both Madoka and Sayaka were surprised as they turned around and saw Mami stood behind them.

"Hello," Mami greeted with a smile. "How are you two today?"

"We're fine," Sayaka replied. "Ummm... Mami... How about you? I mean..."

"I'm fine," Mami said. "I'm really sorry for making you worry about me because I left you two in a rush."

"We don't want to disturb you after what had happened," Madoka said. "We're sorry that we weren't been able to help you. It's our fault that you're almost..."

"It's okay," Mami interrupted. "I was the one at fault for involving you two in the first place and making you witnessing something horrible."

"Man, I really hate miss Remilia and that girl in red. They shouldn't say something harsh just like that as if you didn't do anything good all this time," Sayaka said in an angry tone.

"Let's not talk about this matter for now. Let's have our lunch and talk about it later," Mami said, trying to divert the whole conversation. Madoka and Sayaka only nodded. Although Madoka still felt uncomfortable after what had happened yesterday, but seeing Mami's smiling face at that time while they were talking about random things made her felt a little bit relieved.

"Umm, Mami... Can we visit you today after school?" Madoka asked. Mami stiffened as she heard Madoka's question before she quickly loosen back her body. She had made a promise with Alice to keep Alice's identity a secret. She thought that if Madoka and Sayaka visit her apartment, then they will saw Alice's magic. But Alice had also said that she will do something about it if Madoka, Sayaka or Kyuubey found out about her. But if she prevent them from coming to the apartment, she guessed that they will think that she was trying to avoid them. Mami had a headache while trying to make a choice between letting Madoka and Sayaka visit her or not.

"S-sure, y-you can come after school," Mami stuttered as she finally replied to Madoka's question.

"Ah, our class is going to start soon," Sayaka said as she heard the school bell had rung.

"We'll be going now," Madoka said as she stood up. "We'll see you after school, Mami."

"I'll see you two later then," Mami said with a smile. She watched Madoka and Sayaka left the rooftop before she let out a small sigh, wondering what will happen afterwards. She knew that Alice said it will going to be fine if someone found out the truth, but she still could not help and avoid herself from feeling anxious about it. She slowly packed up her lunch box and immediately left the rooftop.

...

All the students rushed to leave their classroom as soon as they heard the bell rung; indicating that school time was over. Each of them had different plans in their mind of what they wanted to do after school. Some of the students were involved in various club and school activities. While most students were looking forward to use their free time to go out with their friends, doing anything that they found interesting.

Mami let out a sigh when she looked at all her friends. She felt envy at them for having a lot of free time to do anything that they like. If it were not for the contract that she made with Kyuubey, she would also be able to join her friends, laughing and chatting around. All this time she felt really empty despite her 'happy' and smiling expression that she always showed towards everyone around her. But after she met Madoka, Sayaka and Alice, she could feel a little bit joyful and blessed in her heart. After Mami made sure she packed up all her belongings, she immediately left her classroom.

"Mami," Madoka called as soon as she saw Mami walked out of the school building. She and Sayaka were waiting for Mami near the front door so that Mami could see them clearly.

"I'm sorry for making you wait for me," Mami said with a smile. "Shall we go then?"

"Yup," Madoka said with a nod. The three of them started walking past the school gate before Sayaka suddenly stopped. Madoka and Mami looked at her for a second. "Sayaka, what's wrong?"

"Ah, I just remember that I had something that I want to do. I think I'll join you up after that," Sayaka said.

"Are you going to see Kamijou?" Madoka asked.

"Well, something like that," Sayaka grinned. "I'll see you later."

"Okay, we'll see you later," Madoka said. Madoka and Mami waved at Sayaka who walked away from them before they started walking. It took less than half an hour for them to arrive at the front of the building. As they went up using an elevator, Mami could feel her heart gradually beating faster. She started to feel nervous as she took each step towards her room apartment. She could not imagine how Madoka would react if she saw Alice's magic.

"We're here," Madoka said in a cheerful voice. It seemed that she was excited for whatever reason she had in her mind.

"C-come in," Mami was a little bit stuttered as she twisted the door knob.

"Mami, why aren't your door locked?" Madoka asked as she saw Mami did not use a key to unlock her apartment's door.

"Someone's currently living with me," Mami replied.

"Really? Who?" Madoka asked.

"M-miss Alice," Mami answered. The door was unlocked meant that Alice was at home. Mami was getting more nervous the moment she opened the door. As they went inside, Madoka's eyes glittered when she saw two dolls floating around at the living room, carrying a teapot and a teacup. Alice was sitting on the floor while kintting something before her eyes fixed at Mami and Madoka. She guessed that it was really hard to keep her magic a secret.

"We're home," Mami greeted.

"Ah, welcome home miss Mami," Alice greeted back. "I didn't know miss Madoka will be visiting."

"Yes, Madoka wanted to visit me today," Mami replied.

"Wow, I didn't know that you were able to control dolls, Mami," Madoka said in an excited voice as she and Mami sat on the floor opposite of Alice.

"Ermm... Actually, the dolls belongs to miss Alice," Mami said. Madoka widened her eyes as she looked at Alice.

"So does that mean you had make a contract with Kyuubey?" Madoka asked Alice. Alice looked at Mami, assuming that she still had not revealed anything to Madoka.

"That's a secret," Alice replid with a smile. That was the possible answer that she could think of instead of lying. At some point she felt guilty that she had to avoid from answering Madoka's answer but she had no other choice for her and the other's sake. Madoka tilted her head as she was confused with Alice's answer. Alice then summoned several dolls and turned towards it.

"Please bring me two more teacups and some desserts," Alice ordered her dolls.

"Yes, mistress Alice," the dolls nodded before it went into the kitchen. After a few seconds, they came back with the teacups and some cakes and placed it on the table. Madoka excitedly trailed her eyes on every doll that went forth and back at the room.

"Miss Alice, are your dolls alive?" Madoka asked.

"Nope, I'm the one manipulating all my dolls," Alice replied. "Why do you ask?"

"But you just talked with them," Madoka said.

"I was quite surprised too," Mami said. "I didn't remember seeing you talking with your dolls before."

"Well... although I'm the one who's manipulating my dolls, but I'd like to make them seemed alive for personal amusement," Alice said.

"I see," Madoka said. She then took a bite on the cake that Alice's dolls brought to them and curved a small smile when she tasted the sweetness of it. "Wow! This cake is really delicious!"

"Thank you for your compliment," Alice said. "I thought that you won't like the cake that I just baked."

"Wow, you can bake too?"

"Yes."

"Miss Alice was the one who cooked for me last night and this morning, and everything was delicious," Mami said to Madoka. Alice only smiled when she heard Mami's compliment.

"That's the least thing that I could do for you," Alice said. Then she noticed that someone was not with Madoka right at that moment. "Speaking of which, it seems that miss Sayaka isn't with you."

"She said she had something to do," Madoka said.

"Oh," Alice said. She took few sip of her tea before she looked at Mami and asked a question. "Now then, are you ready for witch hunt?"

"Yes," Mami only replied with short answer. She felt reluctant to answer Alice's question. But she had to make a decision so that Alice would not be disappointed with her, especially since she promised Alice that she would keep her spirit strong no matter what happens to her in the near future.

"Can I come too?" Madoka asked. Mami looked at her with a concerned expression.

"I think I won't involve you in witch hunt anymore after what happened yesterday," Mami said. "It's too dangerous for you since you don't have any magical abilities."

Madoka lowered her head as she felt disappointed with Mami's answer. But she had to accept the decision since what Mami had just said was true. The main reason she wanted to visit Mami was so that she could join her at witch hunts and gave her some morale support, which she thought the least thing that she could do for Mami.

"Then I think I should make a contract with Kyuubey so that I can help you," Madoka tried to convince Mami. Mami only kept silent. She felt regret because she was the one who told Madoka that she had the potential to be able to help other people in the first place. But she did not have the courage to disagree with Madoka's decision since it would shatter Madoka's hope to become a better and helpful person. Alice only gazed at Mami and Madoka for merely a minute.

"I think there's no problem with miss Madoka coming along," Alice finally spoke, making Mami surprised to hear her decision. The main reason that Alice wanted Madoka to come with them was that so she could at least kept her eyes on Madoka. She did not want her to make a contract with Kyuubey. At the same time, Alice hoped that Sayaka would not make a rash decision and become a magical girl.

"W-wait, miss Alice! I don't want Madoka to be involved anymore although she had the potential to become a magical girl! It's too dangerous and I won't allow it!" Mami said in a disapproved tone. She then realized that she had unintentionally raised her voice towards Alice and immediately changes her tone as she spoke. "I'm sorry, miss Alice. I didn't mean to argue with you, but I'm afraid that something will happen to Madoka."

"Don't worry, I'll promise that nothing that can harm her and you," Alice replied. Madoka looked at both Mami and Alice with a confused expression. She thought that Alice was supposed to accept Mami's decision since Mami was a veteran magical girl. But from their conversation, it seemed to Madoka that Mami was the one who had to agree with Alice.

"Please, Mami," Madoka pleaded.

"Alright, you can come with us," Mami finally agreed. She saw Madoka's face started to brighten up once again.

"But promise us that you won't become a magical girl until it's needed," Alice suddenly said in a serious tone.

"Eh? Why?" Madoka asked.

"Let's just say that good things will happen to those who are patient and I'm sure of it. So can you promise us?"

"O-okay, I'll promise," Madoka replied. After thinking for the second time, what Alice had just said was quite true because she was still unsure about what wish she want to make. If she make a haste wish that she will regret later on, she will feel that she had wasted her one time chance for her wish to come true.

"Now that's settled, let's finish our tea and cake so that we can go early," Alice said. After the three of them finished their food and had Alice's dolls washed all the dishes, they immediately left Mami's apartment.

Mami was nervous with Alice joining her on her witch hunt as they started walking around the city. Although she knew that she was an experienced and veteran magical girl but she felt that Alice was more knowledgeable and experienced in magic, especially since she already knew that Alice was related with Remilia, Sakuya and Vita. After walking endlessly for almost an hour, Mami's soul gem finally glowed faintly as it reacted to witch's magical signature nearby.

"I've found nearby witch," Mami said. Alice and Madoka only nodded before the three of them continued walking until they reached a empty park. Mami made sure no one was around before she changed into her magical outfit. Her soul gem blinked once before a magic circle formed in front of them.

"Let's go inside," Alice said as she summoned dozens dolls around her. Each doll was equipped with a lance on its right arm and a kite shield on its left arm, unlike the one that Madoka and Mami saw before at the apartment.

"Some of you go and protect miss Madoka," Alice ordered her dolls.

"Roger, mistress Alice," Several dolls then flew towards Madoka and stand by beside her. Alice turned at Madoka and said, "Now you won't have to worry about familiars and the witch because my dolls will protect you from them."

"Thank you, miss Alice," Madoka said. Since the witch already hatched from its egg, the familiars that guarding the barrier were more aggressive and started attacking Mami, Madoka and Alice as they walked inside the barrier. Alice used tactical strategy in engaging with the familiars as she divided her dolls into two groups. Half of her dolls that she summoned formed a defense line in front of her, while the other half continuously attacked the familiars. The familiars also did not manage to lay an attack on Madoka since Alice's dolls would kill it instantly the moment it stepped within the doll's attack range.

_Amazing! Even miss Alice was able to fight the familiars despite being a newly contract magical girl. I'm really envy of her_, Madoka thought as she witnessed how Alice fought the familiars. Her heart felt the urge to join in the fight and helped Alice and Mami so that she could at least become someone useful to them. But she had to shrug off the urge because she had made a promise with them not to become a magical girl. In her mind she was wondering for the reason Alice did not want her to become a magical girl. _Is it because miss Alice don't want me to become a magical girl at all so she can gain Mami's attention? No, that's not it... Miss Alice wouldn't do something like that because she's a nice person. She said that I have to be patient so that something good will happen. So I must believe in her._

Mami was panting as she continued engaging at the familiars. She narrowed her eyes as she could feel her heart once again started to beat faster as her mind unconsciously recalled her memories of yesterday. She quickly shrugged off her memories every time it appeared while trying her best to defeat as much familiars as she could so that she would not be a burden towards Alice and Madoka. The reason she did not want to involve Madoka and Sayaka anymore was because she realized that she started to feel lack of confidence in protecting them. But the promise that she and Alice had made with each other gave her the strength and courage to be brave. Then again, thinking about Alice watching her fight had made her more anxiety than earlier.

_It's all right, miss Alice promised that she will protect Madoka... and me_..._ and she promised me that she will stay by my side, while I promised her that I will stay strong no matter what happens. It's all for miss Alice, Madoka and Sayaka's sake... as well as mine_, Mami thought.

"Is there something wrong, Mami?" Madoka asked.

"I-I'm fine," Mami replied as she tried to smile at Madoka.

"Don't be too nervous and anxious," Alice whispered as she walked beside Mami. "After all, Madoka and I are here to help you. So don't you worry about a thing."

"Thank you, miss Alice. I'm sorry for making you two worry about me," Mami said. Alice only smiled without saying anything furthermore. Mami guessed that Alice realized that she was not doing quite well. Once again she tried to convince herself that Alice was by her side to help her and she needed to stay strong and focused on the witch hunt. After walking around the witch's barrier and killed countless familiars, Madoka, Mami and Alice finally reached the centre of the barrier where the witch usually resided. They stood at front of a corridor with runic alphabets carved on the walls along the corridor.

"We're finally here," Mami said. Madoka and Alice nodded in response. After they made sure that they were prepared, they immediately entered the corridor which led them to a strange room filled with lots of bells on the walls. Since the room was abundance of floor, they felt that they were floating inside the room. They carefully looked around but they did not saw a witch around them.

"That's strange. There's no witch in here," Madoka said.

"It should be here," Mami said. "I'm sure of it because I can feel it."

"I agree. I assume that it's hiding from us right now," Alice said. Suddenly the witch appeared out of nowhere and dashed towards Mami from behind.

"Mami, watch out!" Madoka shouted. Mami tried to turn to her back before the witch managed to attack her. But her mind was once again disturbed by the image of the witch she fought yesterday, causing her to lose her concentration for a second before she snapped back into the reality as she heard a heavy bumping sound. A few seconds ago, there was nothing in between the witch and her. Now Mami saw several dolls floated in front of her, holding up their shield and blocked the incoming attack from the witch.

"M-miss Alice," Mami looked at Alice who approached her. "I'm sorry that I've lost my concentration for a moment."

"Fight for a reason so that you have the courage to move on. It's okay if you want to impress miss Madoka and miss Sayaka, but don't forget the main reason you've fought the witches all this time," Alice advised with a smile.

Alice seemed to know the reason Mami could not concentrate on fighting the witch was that because she still kept remembering her traumatic memories. But she did not gave up in giving Mami the courage to overcome her trauma and fear, especially since she assumed that Mami was the type of person who got disappointed and depressed easily. Such person had a fragile heart that needed to be guided and encouraged.

Mami widened her eyes as she heard what Alice had just said before she started to smile. She then conjured several muskets in front of her and took two of it with both of her arms. Mami aimed her muskets at the witch and started shooting it continuously, throwing the empty one before she grabbed the new musket that she just conjured.

_That's right, all this time I fought for a reason_. _I fought to protect people from witches. Just like miss Alice said, it's fine if I wanted to impress someone as long as I remember my reason for fighting the witches. I know that I was stupid for making a contract with Kyuubey. But I've survived death twice solely for a reason; to protect anyone, especially those who are dear to me. If I die or become a coward now, that means I'll give a chance for Madoka to become a magical girl_, Mami thought.

Alice sighed in relief as she saw Mami slowly started to get her confidence back. Both Alice and Mami continued engaging at the witch while Madoka only stood behind them. She watched at them with awe as she could feel their teamfight was in sync. Alice's dolls kept distracting the witch's attention while Mami continued to conjure her muskets and shot it. The witch shriek in pain as some of the bullets hit its body.

"This one's quite strong," Mami said.

"Not to worry," Alice replied. "It's already weakening."

Suddenly within a second, they heard a clashing metal as something that looked like a blue ray of light accelerated in front of them and hit the witch. It was too fast for the three of them to see what it was. The thing bounced all over the room and continuously hit the witch before it stopped in front of them. Madoka and Mami widened their eyes as the thing was a person with a short blue hair, matching with her blue eyes. She wore something similar to a breast plate, a blue skirt and a pair of detached sleeve with a pair of white gloves. A large white cape covered mostly over her upper body. They could see a blue soul gem that was almost similar to a cresent moon located at her navel. She was holding a cutlass on her right hand.

"Sayaka!" Madoka said in a surprised tone. Sayaka only smiled at Madoka before she conjured several cutlasses around her and continuously threw the cutlasses at the witch.

"She made a contract with Kyuubey," Mami muttered before she also joined Sayaka in fighting the witch. Alice clenched her hands as she looked at Sayaka. She did not expect that Sayaka would make a contract with Kyuubey too soon after what she and Madoka witnessed yesterday. She guessed that there was nothing that she could not do since Sayaka had become a magical girl. Now that only person that she could prevent from making a contract with Kyuubey was Madoka. Alice then floated beside Madoka as she regroups all her dolls in front of her to form a defense line.

"This is it!" Sayaka shouted as she started accelerated.

"Tiro Finale!" Mami shouted as the musket that she held turned into a gigantic canon and shot it towards the witch. The witch let out a small cry before it vanished out from Madoka, Mami, Sayaka and Alice's sight, leaving behind a grief seed. The witch's barrier also started to disappear before the four of them found themselves back at the park. They all sighed in relief as the fight was finally over. Madoka looked at Sayaka who walked towards the grief seed and picked it up before she turned towards them.

"It's finally over," Sayaka said with a smile. Just before anyone could respond, Homura suddenly appeared out of nowhere and walking slowly towards them. Madoka only looked at her without saying anything.

"I've warned you not to make a contract with Kyuubey and it seems you paid no attention to my warning," Homura said as she looked at Sayaka who showed her hostility towards Homura the moment she saw her. But on the other hand, Homura only ignored her as she turned her face towards Alice who was surrounded by her dolls. "A new magical girl?"

"That's a secret," Alice quickly replied. Homura looked at Alice in silent for a second.

"Well, I hope you're ready to face every consequences that you'll receive as a magical girl," Homura said while she fixed her hair with her hand as she turned around.

"Does that mean you know the consequences of becoming a magical girl?" Alice asked. For a brief moment, Alice could see Homura's body stiffened before it loosens back, as if she was surprised by the question.

"Yes."

"What are the consequences?" Alice asked, trying to dig out the secret of the magical girls. Alice assumed that Homura knew something that others did not know based on what she had just said. However Homura did not answer the question as she walked away from them, disappeared into the darkness. All of them only looked at Homura before Madoka, Mami and Alice turned their attention towards Sayaka. Sayaka looked back at them with a nervous expression, while scratching the back of her head.

"Ahaha, I guess I have some explanation to do," Sayaka said as she let out a small laugh.

...

There was silence in Mami's apartment as all of them sat down and drank their tea that Mami had prepared with the help of Alice's dolls. Sayaka shifted her body several times since she was nervous towards whatever came out from Madoka, Alice and especially Mami's mouth. At the same time, she was amazed to see few dolls floating beside Alice after it helped Mami carrying a teapot and four teacups to the table. Since she was busy fighting earlier, she did not notice or paid attention to the dolls before.

"Did you also make a contract with Kyuubey, miss Alice?" Sayaka tried to create a conversation.

"That's a secret," Alice said with a smile, giving the same answer that she gave to Madoka and Homura. Sayaka made a confused expression as she did not understand Alice's answer.

"Sayaka, didn't you said you're hesitated to become a magical girl before," Madoka said.

"Well... yeah... Ahaha..." Sayaka hastily replied. "I guess I had a change of heart."

"Sayaka, you already know that you'll risk your life as magical girl right?" Mami asked.

"Yes. But now that I've became a magical girl, I could help you with the witch hunt from now on," Sayaka replied. Then she looked at Alice once again. "Miss Alice, did you become a magical girl because you didn't want something happen to Mami again? I think you've also disagree on what the girl with bat wings named Remilia and that girl in red had said towards Mami."

Alice continuously sipped her tea as she tried to find a possible answer. She did not like the idea of lying towards other people no matter how important the secrets that she wanted to conceal. So far only Mami knew and accept the truth about her relationship with Remilia, Sakuya and Vita, although she did not tell her on purpose. But Alice was not confident about whether Madoka and especially Sayaka would accept her, since they seemed to dislike Remilia and the others.

"Sayaka, I think miss Alice doesn't want to talk about it for now since she was a little bit tired," Mami replied instead of Alice. Alice only curved a small smile at Mami.

"Ah, I see," Sayaka said. "I'm sorry for asking you."

"That's alright. I'm sorry because I can't tell you anything for now. I'll promise I'll tell you everything when the time comes," Alice said. Sayaka only nodded in response although she still did not understand what Alice meant by what she had just said.

"By the way Sayaka, what wish did you make?" Madoka asked.

"Well... I wished for Kamijou's hand to be completely healed," Sayaka replied. Mami widened her eyes as soon as she heard Sayaka's wish, but no one except Alice noticed sudden change in her expression. Mami immediately curved a smile at Alice before she took a sip of her tea, trying to divert her attention.

"Wow, you've really made a great wish," Madoka said in an amusement tone.

"Thanks," Sayaka said with a smile. "Earlier I've also made another achievement before I've met you all."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, guess what," Sayaka said in a very excited tone. "I've defeated a witch by myself and saved Hitomi and several other people who were possessed by it."

"Hitomi also being possessed by witch?" Madoka asked in a surprised tone. "Is she all right?"

"You don't have to worry. She's all right and well," Sayaka replied with a smile.

"Thank goodness," Madoka said with a sigh as she felt relieved that Hitomi was unharmed.

"By the way, where's Kyuubey?" Mami asked.

"I don't know. He immediately left after I made the contract with him," Sayaka replied. Then once again she turned her attention towards Alice. "Miss Alice, is it okay for you to continuously use your magic?"

"I think there's no problem for me to use my magic a little bit longer," Alice replied.

"Oh," Sayaka only let out that one word. She then looked at the clock on the wall that showed the time 7 PM. "Ah! It's getting late!"

"You're right! Mom and dad are going to worry if I don't go home right now," Madoka said as she and Sayaka stood up.

"Shall I walk you out into the street?" Alice asked.

"Nope, it's okay," Madoka replied. Both Sayaka and Madoka went towards the front door before, accompanied by Mami and Alice. "See you tomrrow, Mami and miss Alice."

"See you tomorrow," Mami replied back, waving at both of them. Alice also waved at Madoka and Sayaka as she watched them went out, slowly closing the door.

"Thank you for making up an excuse for me earlier," Alice said.

"You're welcome," Mami said. "But is it okay for you to keep your identity as a magician a secret from them?"

"I hope so," Alice replied. "I don't like to lie to other people because a bitter truth is better than a sweetest lie. I'll tell them everything that I've told you last night when the time comes. For now, I'm a little bit concerned that they'll dislike me if they know that I'm related to Remilia, Sakuya and miss Vita."

"But you've told me about your relationship with miss Remilia, miss Sakuya and miss Vita," Mami said. "And I don't dislike nor hate you. In fact, I really highly respect you because you were nice to me."

"Thank you for your respect for me. You were able to accept me because you're a kind girl," Alice said in a humble tone.

Being praised by Alice was the wonderful thing that Mami had ever received. She had not received such compliment for quite a long time especially since all this time she had to act like a senior, showing her mature and cool side. Since she now regarded Alice as a sisterly figure to her, she felt that she could show a little bit immature and childlike side of the other hand, Alice felt that Mami started to show her affection towards Alice.

"Umm... Miss Alice, are you going to leave too?" Mami asked, like those of a small child asking their mother. She could feel her heart suddenly pounding for no reason. She guessed that she was anxious if Alice would also left, leaving her alone in her apartment.

"Well... I suppose..." Alice trailed off as she put her finger under her chin before she smiled at Mami. "I'll stay with you for a little bit longer if you'll let me stay."

"Then tonight it'll be my turn to cook dinner for us," Mami said in a cheerful tone, clasping her hands before she turned around and walked towards the kitchen. Alice only smiled as she followed Mami from behind, while wondering whatever unexpected things would occur from then on.

...

**At Arthra:**

Admiral Lindy was sitting at the bridge while reading through a piece of letter that she had just took out from its envelope. She narrowed her eyes several times before she finally closed it. She then opened back her eyes and reached for her tea, sipped it a few times before she fixed her eyes once more at the letter.

"What's wrong, admiral?" Chrono asked as he walked towards Lindy.

"Oh, nothing," Lindy replied before she handed the letter at Chrono. "I just don't understand the content of this letter."

Chrono took the letter and read it over and over again, while tilting his head. He was also confused as he did not understand the content of the letter. It does not tell him much other than stating a few line of some sort of poems.

_When a light engulfed by darkness,_

_A creature shall be born,_

_Learn to free it is a must,_

_So that everything may be back to normal._

"I don't understand," Chrono said. "Usually the letter that we've received was stating something very clearly. Now all we've got is a riddle."

"That's what I would like to know too," Lindy said. She then took the envelope and said. "On the envelope, it says that the letter also goes to Nanoha, Reimu and the others."

"How did the person know about Reimu and her companions?"

"I don't know."

"Then should we inform them?"

"Yes, please do," Lindy replied. Chrono nodded in response before she turned around and walked away. Lindy only slump her head at her chair while blankly stared at the large screen in front of her, wondering what the content of the letter really meant.

* * *

**Afterword:**

Hello there. I'm really sorry for the delay in publishing chapter 8 since I had to reread and re-edit the chapter. I think that I'll try to slow my writing pace down for now since I've started my life as a university student. Nevertheless, I'll try to write as much as possible and publish it as soon as possible...


End file.
